Sox Leave Their Cuban At Home

By Benjy Lipsman in News on May 1, 2008 7:29PM

The White Sox head to Toronto for a four-game series with the Blue Jays tomorrow, minus one if their players. Because of visa issues, they left Cuban national Alexei Ramirez behind in Chicago.

Ramirez defected to the Dominican Republic eight months ago, before signing with the Sox. While team officials were working on getting his paperwork in order, the early trip north of the border worked against them as they were unable to get him the proper visas to enter and leave Canada. Chicagoist has never understood why MLB doesn't have some sort of priority access at the State Department to get all these players' visa issues resolved more easily. Every year, guys show up late to spring training because of issues with visa -- and now this?

Without Ramirez available, the Sox intend to make a short-term roster move. Expect either Josh Fields or Jerry Owens to appear in Canada in his stead.