Eight years after Cuba's international baseball legend Omar Linares played his last game for the Chunichi Dragons, that nation's manager said Thursday it was about time more of his countrymen came to Japan to play in Nippon Professional Baseball.

Speaking ahead of Friday's World Baseball Classic tune-up against Japan at Yahoo Dome, Cuba manager Victor Mesa said he would be delighted if players were able to play in Japan's leagues.

"There is a lot of discussion behind the scenes about that possibility," Mesa said. "There are no specifics, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it happening in the very near future."