Armando Johnson finished his term as the manager of the Cuban team and was not renewed by the country’s baseball federation to lead the national team in future events. According to my sources, one of the main candidates to lead the Cuban team in the upcoming World Classic in 2026 is ex-national team star Michel Enríquez.
The infielder has plenty of experience in these events as a player and has been involved in professional baseball in Mexico as a coach for several years. Johnson in 2023, in addition to placing fourth in the World Classic, won a title in the Caribbean Cup , was the runner-up in Central American Games and placed sixth Pan American Games leading the island’s team. His last event leading the Cuban team was the Premier 12 in November, a tournament in Cuba finished 11th out of the 12 teams that qualified for the event.
Enríquez has been nicknamed “The Super 12” by the island’s fans due to his innate ability to get key hits and make plays at the most opportune times during his career. Aside from Omar Linares no third baseman is more revered by the Cuban faithful. Over his 22 year career he amassed more than 2,000 hits, swatted 163 round-trippers and drove in 906 runs. All this while posting a slash line of .356/.456/.525/.981. He also holds the single season records for hits in the Serie Nacional.
In 2005-06 he won a batting title in Cuba and hit a robust .447 earning him a spot on Cuba’s 2006 World Baseball Classic squad that finished runner-up in the tournament against top MLB talent. Enríquez in part was a fixture in Cuba’s international “Big Red Machine” that won countless amount of international tournaments including a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Having Enríquez take the reigns of the country’s national team will definitely represent an upgrade and could attract some very talented players to the squad for the event.