The announcement of the schedule for recovering the first games and that only those pending matches that decide qualification will be played, were confirmed by Cuban baseball management in a press conference.
Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo, national commissioner, explained that the accumulation of over 50 games, suspended or sealed, has strained the end of the season amidst a complex economic scenario in the country.
The clashes between Mayabeque and Granma, Artemisa against La Isla, Santiago de Cuba versus Villa Clara, Las Tunas against Ciego de Ávila and Cienfuegos versus Pinar del Río were rescheduled for the 19th and 20th.
For the 21st, the match-ups Mayabeque-Artemisa, Industriales-La Isla and Las Tunas-Ciego de Ávila are planned.
The also President of the Cuban Baseball and Softball Federation (FCBS) reiterated that adjustments to the calendar obey the necessity of concluding the National Series at the end of January, shortly before the start of the Caribbean Series.
In an intense exchange aiming to agree variants that ensure competitiveness and spectacle, there was agreement on the pertinence of making decisions regarding the conclusion of the calendar, as the qualification becomes clearer.
Baseball officials even left open the possibility of playing matches to decide the order of teams with places in the quarter-finals, beyond the first and second places, which also secure passage to the upcoming Elite League.
Regarding the start of the postseason, several variants exist, depending on the date by which all qualifiers are defined; in one of them the start of the playoffs would be on the 24th of December and in others at the beginning of January.
There were also diverse approaches regarding shortening the quarter-finals to a five-game series, specifically because the variant of two games first at the home of the worst-placed team in the table and the remaining three afterwards at the other venue is being considered more strongly, in order to optimise time.
On the proposal to halt the playoff and resume it after the Caribbean Series, Pérez Pardo argued, fundamentally, logistical reasons to discard it, at least in the current assessments.
The official commented that following the decision to withdraw Venezuela as host of the Caribbean Series, it remains pending whether the country chosen to assume the event will maintain the invitation to Cuba.
In this regard, the FCBS informed that it awaits contact with the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation to decide that issue, whose outcome could influence the course of the postseason.
Cuban baseball management ratified its position that players immersed in the playoffs would be ineligible for the Caribbean Series, a matter on which there were diverse opinions.
