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Harper: Mets' Yoenis Cespedes a Cuban pioneer
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Harper: Mets' Yoenis Cespedes a Cuban pioneer

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Mets' Yoenis Cespedes steals third base against the Yankees on Tuesday.Chris O’Meara/AP

Mets’ Yoenis Cespedes steals third base against the Yankees on Tuesday.

Hailed as a conquering hero for slugging the Mets to the NL East title last season, Yoenis Cespedes raised his profile even higher with his well-documented parade of luxury sports cars in spring training, making him perhaps the most famous Cuban to ever play in the major leagues.

But someday Cespedes may be remembered in more historic terms, as one of the pioneers responsible for a new, improved era in relations between Cuba and the United States — and with it the end of players risking their lives to play ball at the highest level.

Obviously there are other factors in play from a political standpoint, but seeing the images on TV of Barack Obama in Cuba on Tuesday, the first such visit by a U.S. President since 1928, you couldn’t help thinking that baseball made it possible.

A love for the sport has always been the one common denominator between the two countries, but it was never enough to bring about change, until now perhaps.

Likewise, Cubans have played in the majors for decades, some like Luis Tiant and Hall of Famer Tony Perez gaining a level of fame approaching that of Cespedes.

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But as with all negotiations, the higher the stakes, the more pressure brought to bear on the forces that make change possible. And these days MLB is a multi-billion dollar industry, with even the smallest of markets more flush with cash than ever before, and salaries continuing to rise into the stratosphere.

Cuban stars are commanding more of that cash than ever, with Cespedes earning $27.5 million this season, making him the second-highest paid position player to Miguel Cabrera in the game at the moment.

Others like Aroldis Chapman, Jose Abreu, and Yasiel Puig have lived up to big-money contracts signed as mostly unknown commodities, and as a group this recent wave of Cuban stars has validated the level of Cuban baseball more than any in the past.

At the same time, the harrowing tales of escape from Cuba that each have told to one extent or another, each of them risking punishment by the Castro regime if caught, not to mention their lives crossing rough waters to freedom, have shined more light than ever on the need for change.

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Perhaps you have to go back to Orlando Hernandez, the ex-Yankee star who garnered so much attention nearly two decades ago for his voyage from Cuba, as the first to raise more general awareness of the plight of Cuban ballplayers.

Of course, it’s worth remembering the Yankees outbid the competition for El Duque at a cost of a four-year, $6.6 million deal — perhaps the best money George Steinbrenner ever spent, considering what a money performer Hernandez proved to be in October.

Cespedes' style and power make him an in-demand player.Chris O’Meara/AP

Cespedes’ style and power make him an in-demand player.

By contrast, Cespedes signed with the A’s for $36 million, Chapman with the Reds for $30.25 million, Puig with the Dodgers for $42 million, and Abreu with the White Sox for $68 million.

As a result, the demand for Cuban players has increased, as well as the desire by agents and the like to cash in on the talent, resulting in all sorts of nefarious activity. Puig’s escape alone, as detailed in Los Angeles Magazine in 2014, involved Mexican drug cartels, human smuggling, and kidnapping.

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As a result, as commissioner Rob Manfred said in Cuba on Monday, Major League Baseball has made it a priority to try and change the system and create a new one that would allow players to go back and forth from Cuba freely.

That desire was an important motivation, Manfred acknowledged, for the game that was arranged and played on Tuesday between the Rays and the Cuban national team.

There are obvious benefits to MLB for such change: Major league teams could eventually build player academies in Cuba, as they have done in countries such as the Dominican Republic, to teach and develop young talent in a place that is similarly passionate about baseball.

Beyond that, Manfred didn’t rule out the possibility of playing regular-season games in Cuba, or even one day having a major league franchise there

However, there are plenty of hurdles for any of that to happen, as diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba have only recently begun to change for the better, and there is no telling how quickly progress will be made on various economic fronts.

But certainly the sights and sounds from the ballpark in Cuba seemed to have a feel-good quality to them, creating a sense of optimism that change was in the air.

I f that’s true, it’s at least partly because baseball has the type of cultural influence in Cuba that has at least partially given way to other sports in our country.

“Baseball is religion here’’ Joe Torre was quoted as saying in Cuba, and such fervor, combined with big business in the States perhaps made a day like Tuesday the start of something important.

If so it will be because Cespedes, among others, led the way.

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