Major League Baseball has an International Free Agent system for amateur players. The vast majority of these players come from the Caribbean, South America, and Central America. But primarily focusses in the Dominican Republic. Unlike other sports, international prospects don’t commit to an NCAA program, nor are they eligible for the MLB Entry Draft as a 16 year old. These players sign with MLB Teams as amateurs at 16-17 years old. MLB teams manipulation and taking advantage of young prospects is something that needs to stop. There are a variety of factors that play into this.
Handshake Deals with Young Prospects
For players at the top of their international signing class, teams identify them when they are 12-13 years old as top talents, and agree to handshake deals that the player will sign with them when their class comes around, some 3-4 years later. What teams will do is that they will “stash” the prospects in their International Academies in various countries, giving them access to state of the art training and coaching facilities years in advance of their signing and professional debuts. An example of this, the image above is of Dominican shortstop Mairon De La Rosa, a player in the 2027 international class, who is currently said to be signing with the Yankees. This is no slight to De La Rosa, as a lot of these prospects want to secure life changing money to support themselves and their families. The bottom line is that far in the future teams have handshake agreements with young prospects, and as far in the future as i’ve seen, there are some teams and prospects that have handshake agreements in the 2030 international class. Players who are currently 9-10 years old.
Inconsistent Documentation
In 2009, when Miguel Sano signed with the Minnesota Twins, there were concerns that he was older than age 16 that he claimed to be. His documentation confirmed his identity, but could not confirm his date of birth according to reports. Sano was investigated by MLB and was ordered to take a DNA Test to prove his age, they concluded he was the age he claimed to be, allowing him to sign with the Twins. Since then, MLB has instituted a process where they investigate every player who is going to sign with an MLB team, and also work with the Dominican government to prove the validity of certain documents, Trying to make sure that an age scandal doesn’t happen, though they still occur rarely.
Manipulation of Prospects
Continuing on Sano, the documentary “Pelotero” describes his situation in much greater detail. In summary, the Pittsburgh Pirates and their Latin America Scouting Director, Rene Gayo, heavily were pushing Sano to sign the deal that would benefit the Pirates if his age was higher than what he claimed. ($2.6 Million). Though tensions between Gayo and the Sano family caused that deal to fall through in the midst of MLB’s investigation of Sano’s age. As seen in the documentary, much of Sano’s family seemed to dislike Gayo. which ultimately closed that door before Minnesota swooped in and signed Sano for $3.15 million after MLB concluded he was 16 years old.
Next Steps
During the lockout in the 2021-22 off-season, a late topic before the CBA was ratified was implementing an International Draft for the international prospects. The MLB wanted to implement the International Draft in exchange for getting rid of the Qualifying Offer system. There seemed to be some momentum pushing for an international draft, as it would prevent teams from signing players sometimes 4 years in advance, and it would be a more year-by-year basis. The MLB and MLBPA extended the negotiation period for this specific topic for 4 months after the CBA was ratified, though the International Draft was not implemented, I believe it will be a big topic when the next CBA talks come around in 2026.
BS Reports 
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