Cuban stars Despaigne and Gracial to miss Japanese baseball start

HAVANA, Cuba, May 25 (ACN) Cubans Alfredo Despaigne and Yurisbel Gracial will not be at the start of the 2020 season of the Japanese Professional Baseball League because both do not have enough time to travel from their country to fulfill the compulsory quarantine period before the action begins.
 That was explained on Sunday by Hiroyuki Mori, the head coach of the SoftBank Falcons, the team the two are joining, according to an article published by the sports newspaper Sports Hochi and reflected on the Japanese baseball website.
  The Japanese government plans to announce this Monday the end of the nationwide state of emergency, as the number of new cases of the coronavirus has been reduced to fewer than 10 per day.
According to the newspaper, the J-League is also planning to announce this Monday its opening date for this year, which is expected to be Friday, June 19.
The Japanese baseball website indicates that, once they arrive in Japan, they will be forced to serve a two-week individual quarantine before they can move freely and resume team practice, so they probably won't be able to play until early to mid-July.
 The specialists consider these to be two sensitive absences for a team that will be looking to repeat as Japanese Series champions for the fourth consecutive season.