The Trump administration is ending an Obama-era deal that allowed Major League Baseball to directly sign Cuban baseball players competing in their home country.

The expiration of the deal will force the Cuban athletes to sever ties with their national program, the Cuban Baseball Federation, before signing with the MLB.

The decision was revealed in a Friday Treasury Department letter to MLB attorneys, where the feds said the current recruitment practice of allowing the league to fork over payments – equal to 25% of each Cuban player’s signing bonus – to the Cuban Baseball Federation for their players was being reversed.

In its letter, which was obtained by the Associated Press, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a division of the Treasury Department, said, “in light of facts recently brought to our attention, and after consultation with the U.S. Department of State, OFAC has determined that MLB’s payments to the Cuban Baseball Federation are not authorized.”

Paying the Cuban Baseball Federation for its baseball stars was the result of Obama administration negotiations between the MLB and Cuba, but the dealings didn’t begin until after President Donald Trump took office.

It’s federally illegal for the US to make payments to the Cuban government, however at the time MLB argued that the Cuban Baseball Federation wasn’t formally part of the country.

The league said in a statement it stands by the goal of the original agreement, which was “to end human trafficking of baseball players from Cuba.”