SEATTLE — Banter began early Sunday morning inside the Astros’ clubhouse at T-Mobile Park. George Springer supplied soft jazz from a Spotify playlist that is now a getaway-day staple.

The Masters played on a large television, and to its immediate left, Aledmys Diaz and Yuli Gurriel sparred in Spanish. The two Cubans alternated cackling laughs with occasional updates on the golf tournament.

The infielders are inseparable. When general manager Jeff Luhnow considered acquiring Diaz from Toronto during the offseason, he sought Gurriel’s recommendation before consummating the deal and reuniting the countrymen, who had played together in their native land.

Now, Gurriel doubles as Diaz’s liaison, aiding the utility man with his indoctrination into the Astros’ clubhouse. Diaz is with his third major league team since defecting from Cuba in 2012.

“It’s unbelievable,” Diaz said. “First of all, as a human being, to have a chance to have freedom, go wherever you want to go, and think whatever you want to think, it’s a big change in life. At the same time, you have the chance to prove (yourself) at this level. A lot of Cuban players have the talent, but they don’t have the chance.

“It would be great in the future,” he added, “if (more) Cuban players would have the chance to come over here and play at this level.”

Under the landmark deal Major League Baseball struck with the Cuban Baseball Federation in December, Diaz’s desires were ostensibly realized.

The agreement forced the Cuban Baseball Federation to release contracted players who wished to sign with MLB clubs. Players had to be at least 25 and have at least six years of playing experience. Professional leagues in Korea, Japan and China have similar agreements with Major League Baseball.

Last week, President Donald Trump’s administration canceled the agreement. It contended the baseball federation was part of the Cuban government.

“I was definitely very happy initially, especially knowing that because of that, we would have had more Cuban players able to come to the (United) States,” Gurriel said through Astros interpreter Oz Ocampo.

Gurriel said he is “a little sad” over the scuttling of the deal, “especially for the players that I’ve spoken to who have heard the news and are disappointed about it.”

Part of MLB’s agreement called for a “release fee” that would go to the Cuban Baseball Federation from any major league team signing one of its players.

The Trump administration rescinded a policy by former President Barack Obama that ruled Cuba’s baseball league was independent of its government. The U.S. currently has a commercial, financial and economic embargo against Cuba.

“Payments to the Cuban Baseball Federation are not authorized ... because a payment to the Cuban Baseball Federation is a payment to the Cuban government,” read a letter sent to MLB from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. ESPN obtained the letter and reported its contents last week.

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow declined comment about the deal this week.

“They don’t get the whole information, so it’s tough for the Cuban people to know what’s going on,” Diaz said Sunday. “So I feel like on this side we have a little more information about that. Like I said, it’s a complicated situation.”

MLB has long tried to make safer the distressing and often dangerous defections Cuban ballplayers undergo to get to the United States. Essentially smuggled into the U.S., players have been subjected to such things as perilous boat rides and the threat of jail time in their native country if caught and captured.

In its news release announcing the December agreement, Major League Baseball touted it as “a safe and legal path” for Cubans to sign in the majors. Commissioner Rob Manfred said MLB had been “seeking to end the trafficking of baseball players from Cuba by criminal organizations by creating a safe and legal alternative for those players to sign.”

Gurriel, 34, and Diaz, 28, defected during tournaments in which they played as part of the Cuban national team. Diaz fled from the Netherlands in 2012. He waited for a year in Mexico City while his “paperwork got in order,” he said Sunday. Reports at the time said Diaz presented a false birthday and incurred a one-year suspension.

Four years after Diaz’s defection, Gurriel and his younger brother, Lourdes Jr., left the Dominican Republic during the Carribean Series. Lourdes told The Athletic last year the brothers spent a month basically trapped in Haiti while their handlers figured out logistics.

“It was a very difficult decision, but at the same time it was a good decision because it allowed me to live my dream of wanting to play baseball here at the highest level — in the major leagues — and I’ve been able to do it,” said Yuli Gurriel, whose father once managed the Cuban national team and is part of a family regarded as Cuban baseball royalty. “And I have been able to achieve even more than I’ve thought before (because) we have a World Series ring.”

Diaz, who watched Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez win a World Series with the 1998 Yankees in his first American season after defecting, did not initially think he could achieve similar success. But beginning at age 12, Diaz played with the Cuban national team, and his mind began to change when he saw major league games while staying at hotels in Japan and Canada.

“Then, the first World Baseball Classic (in 2006), I was able to see the Dominican team, the Puerto Rican team, how they played the game, how they enjoyed the game,” Diaz said.

Diaz also saw other Cubans make it to the big leagues, and he, like Gurriel, made his MLB debut in 2016.

“I’ve had a chance to see (Yoenis) Cespedes and (Jose) Abreu and (Aroldis) Chapman,” Diaz said. “They came before me, and I realized that I may have the chance to get here and play, too. It’s a dream for everyone — for all young Cuban players — to have the chance to get here and help his family.”

Diaz’s English is excellent, and Gurriel’s is improving. Before Sunday’s 3-2 win over Seattle, Diaz playfully offered to translate for Gurriel during a conversation. Gurriel gave a wide smile and cracked a joke in perfect English. Still, he preferred an interpreter when speaking on the record.

“It was disappointing, but at the same time, people back 10 years ago, there wasn’t anything,” Gurriel said. “And so, to have an advancement to move forward, that is heartening. Maybe, hopefully, in a couple years we can get this all sorted out.”

chandler.rome@chron.com

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