Why Spain's strongest ships never reached the decisive battles

Why did Spain not bring pre-dreadnought battleships to face the American fleet?

Spain's strongest ships were based across the Atlantic, not all were ready, and the relief force was ultimately recalled when an American threat to Spain itself emerged.

Spain possessed Pelayo and the armoured cruiser Emperor Carlos V, but both began the war across the Atlantic and were not immediately ready for operations. Carlos V combined twenty-knot speed with eleven-inch and 5.5-inch guns, while Pelayo occupied the transition between ironclad and early pre-dreadnought. Rear Admiral Manuel de la Cámara's projected relief force could therefore have brought ships individually more powerful than Dewey's protected cruisers. Its intended role was to defeat Dewey, but the expedition returned home after the Americans threatened to send ships across the Atlantic against Spain itself.