Baseball

The rights to Cuban defector Rene Arocha were won by the St. Louis Cardinals in a special eight-team lottery conducted by Major League Baseball.

The 25-year-old pitcher had three outings in Central Florida Instructional League games over the last month, his first work since defecting from his homeland on July 10 while he was traveling with Cuban national baseball team in Miami.

The Commissioner’s Office arranged the outings so teams could evaluate Arocha without the need for individual tryouts. Apparently only eight had enough interest to enter the lottery.

Arocha had a 110-67 record in 10 seasons in Cuba and is one of only three pitchers there to get 1,000 strikeouts. He defeated the U.S. national team in a game last summer shortly before his defection.