Cuban national pitcher defects in Iowa

Bryce Miller | USA TODAY Sports

A Cuban baseball player slipped away from his teammates and into the darkened parking lot of a West Des Moines hotel Tuesday night so he could defect to the United States and pursue his dream of playing major league baseball.

Misael Siverio, a 24-year-old pitcher, apparently left his team and country behind when he exited the Sheraton Hotel at about 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Paul Seiler, executive director of USA Baseball, confirmed that Siverio is no longer on the roster of the Cuban team that tonight will play an exhibition game against the United States in Des Moines.

Seiler said the Cuban delegation declined to comment.

"From their perspective, he's no longer a member of their delegation," Seiler said.

Friends in the United States aided Siverio, a left-handed pitcher who is experiencing one of the best seasons of his career while compiling a 1.90 earned-run average, according to El Nuevo Herald, a Spanish-language sister newspaper of the Miami Herald.

Details of how Siverio's defected, however, remain unclear.

A manager at the Sheraton declined comment, citing the company's policy against discussing guest business. Several Cuban coaches and players approached during workouts Wednesday at Principal Park also would not to address the situation.

Cuba and the United States are scheduled to start a five-game, traveling exhibition series tonight at Principal Park, home of the Iowa Cubs. Michael Gartner, majority owner of the Iowa Cubs, said he was told only that, "the guy walked out of a hotel in West Des Moines."

The Cuban team arrived in the U.S. via a flight to Chicago Tuesday, then traveled by bus to Des Moines. The team reached the Sheraton about 2 p.m., officials estimated.

Kurt Thompson, of Waukee, exchanged pleasantries with Cuban players on Wednesday at the Sheraton.

"There were a bunch of the players in the lobby," said Thompson, who was at the hotel for a meeting involving his company, National Investors. "They had 'Cuba' across the backs of their shirts and all that stuff. I just said 'Hi' to some of them.

"The thought (a defection) crossed my mind. You hear about that stuff. But you don't expect it in your own backyard."

Sgt. Jason Halifax of the Des Moines Police Department said representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation met with chief Judy Bradshaw before the Cubans arrived in Des Moines. Off-duty officers at Principal Park for Wednesday's team workouts and are expected again for tonight's game.

"We were told to tell our officers that if someone came to them, asking for asylum or asking to defect, we were supposed to take them to the station and call the FBI," Halifax said. "They'd respond from there.

"Other than babysitting someone or providing some refuge, that's all we'd do. We don't have legal authority to do much.

West Des Moines Police Lt. Jim Barrett said his office recorded no calls for service at the Sheraton on Tuesday or Wednesday. Barrett said his office was uncertain about how to proceed — even if they had encountered Siverio.

A representative of the regional U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office contacted by email indicated that any possible details would not be available until Thursday.

Cubans who want to escape their country have been known to pay smugglers as much as $10,000 to escape by raft. But baseball players try to slip past security while traveling abroad — just as Siverio apparently did. For example, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman walked out of a hotel room in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 2009.

Sending word that a player wants to escape is the easy part, according to a baseball scout who was at Principal Park in Des Moines Wednesday. The scout, who declined to be identified by name, often follows Cuban teams when they play in the United States. Players, he said, can signal that they want to defect through Facebook or email messages to friends or others in the United States who can help them.

When Chapman defected, for example, he reportedly told a teammate he was going to the hotel lobby to have a cigarette. Then he got into a waiting car — he has never revealed who was driving — and sped away from the team.

Defections sometimes go awry. Before defecting, Chapman was once left off a Cuban Olympic team because was caught before he could escape from Cuba in a boat. According to court testimony, Milwaukee shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt's defection included an episode in which a smuggler threatened to break his legs in connection with a dispute with a Cuban agent.

After defecting, players frequently stay out of sight while their immigration papers are being processed.

Siverio, one of 24 players on the roster as the team arrived in Des Moines, told El Nuevo Herald that his decision to walk away from his country proved difficult, but was in the best interests of his family as he attempts to become a major league baseball player.

Arguably the two biggest stories of baseball's All-Star week revolved around players who defected from Cuba. Yoenis Cespedes of the Oakland A's won Monday night's Home Run Derby and Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig created debate about whether he should selected to play in the All-Star Game, despite having been in the major leagues for just five weeks.

Puig, who successfully defected in 2012 after multiple attempts, signed a $42 million contract with the Dodgers, while Cespedes, a 2011 defector, landed a $36 million deal with Oakland.

On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida tweeted: "This week, #Cuban defector @ynscspds won @MLB #HRDerby. 2day pitcher Misael Siverio defected hours after arriving in US. Welcome 2 freedom!"

The Des Moines Register published a column on its website Tuesday night that raised the possibility of a player defection while the team played in Iowa.

"I don't blame them, honestly," said Michael Tomlinson, 27, of Carlisle, who watched Cuba's workout Wednesday at Principal Park. "It would kind of suck to be this good and not be able to do anything with your talent beyond the national team."

Another fan, Maureen Griffin, 54, of Des Moines, said it made sense that talented players considered defecting in order to seek big, major-league payouts.

"Cuba's a country that's not had freedom forever," she said. "You have the fame there, but I don't think you can make the money."

Jim Nahas, vice president and assistant general manager of the Iowa Cubs, said this week that Cuban officials did not request special procedures or protocols during the trip to Des Moines.

"I think the last thing in the world they want is a defection," Nahas said Tuesday, hours before the defection happened. "… This is a friendship thing, so that could hurt relationships. That's the last thing they'd want. And that's the last thing the Iowa Cubs would want."

Cuba and the United States are scheduled to play four games after leaving Des Moines, with two in Omaha and another pair in North Carolina.

Miller writes for the Des Moines Register; Tommy Birch contributed to this story