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Pima County announced Monday that TBT will play the rest of its 2025 games in Mexico amid an ongoing visa delay. The team’s final regular-season game in the Mexican Pacific Winter League is scheduled for Dec. 30.

TBT was planning to play at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium this fall after relocating from Navojoa earlier in the year. However, on the eve of the season in October, team ownership learned that its players and staff did not have the appropriate visas. That situation remains unresolved.

“Pima County has been an excellent partner throughout this process, standing with us every step of the way,� one of the team’s owners, Victor Cuevas Jr., said in a new release. “Kino Stadium and the community were ready for us, and we’ll work toward the possibility of bringing professional baseball to Tucson in 2026.�

TBT has played on the road all season and had the worst record in the league (17-36) entering this week’s games. The team is facing Venados de Mazatlán in Mazatlán Tuesday-Thursday in a three-game series that was supposed to be part of a weeklong homestand.

“Although we are disappointed to not see the team at Kino this season, we understand their decision and appreciate the Cuevas family’s efforts and transparency,� Pima County Board of Supervisors chair Rex Scott said in the release. “We look forward to continued conversations about the team returning next year.�

Messages left with the Cuevas family on Monday were not returned.

Sarah Horvath, director of the Kino Sports Complex, told the Star that she and her staff remain in “constant communication� with TBT’s ownership. She added that the Cuevas family is “100%� committed to bringing the team to Tucson.

“This is very much still their goal,� Horvath said. “They are still actively pursuing it.�

Horvath said the Cuevas family fulfilled its contractual obligation with the county and the Kino Sports Complex, making its last rent payment on Friday, Dec. 12.

“We're just really disappointed that this is what it finally came to,� Horvath said. “But we understand the decision the team needed to make.

“Everyone is hopeful that we can get the visa issue figured out by next season.�

The issue pertains to the type of visas TBT needs to operate and play in the United States. The team was informed Oct. 3 that the B1/B2 visas it had obtained were not the right ones.

When news of the delay first surfaced, an immigration lawyer told the Star that the team most likely needed P-1A visas. Those visas, , apply to people “coming temporarily to the United States solely for the purpose of performing at a specific athletic competition� such as “an athlete or coach as part of a team or franchise that is located in the United States and (is) a member of a foreign league or association.�

It’s unclear why the visa delay has lasted this long. It’s possible that the 43-day government shutdown, which began Oct. 1, slowed the process.

A State Department spokesperson declined to divulge specifics regarding TBT’s case, stating via email that “each visa applicant bears the burden of demonstrating he or she meets all qualifications for the visa� and that “due to visa confidentiality, we generally will not comment on actions with respect to specific cases.�

TBT ownership and Tucson officials had hoped the visa issue would be ironed out early in the season, which began in mid-October. They continue to wait.

“We really are at the discretion of the federal government as far as what they choose to approve or not approve in the visa process,� Horvath said. “I thought that this would be resolved a couple weeks into the regular season, and it wasn't. So at this point, I don't know what the timeline looks like.�

Local leaders envisioned a big comeback for professional baseball in Tucson this year and partially achieved that goal. Kino hosted a World Baseball Classic qualifier in early March.

However, an Arizona Fall League tripleheader slated for Oct. 11 was canceled because of weather. And the Tucson Baseball Team never played at Kino after the Oct. 2-5 Mexican Baseball Fiesta.

“We were so excited,� Horvath said. “We had so much good momentum going.

“We're just gonna hang on that things can work out. We really are hopeful here. We’re not giving up. We're gonna keep fighting.�