A Dominican Summer League player in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, Belfi Rivera, is at the heart of a deflating story that dropped on ProPublica about young baseball players in the Dominican Republic being preyed on and scammed.
Gus Garcia-Roberts, an investigative reporter who specializes in sports, released the article on Thursday, Sept. 10. Rivera is at the forefront as Garcia-Roberts exposes Santo Caraballo, whom Garcia-Roberts describes as "one of the most notorious moneylenders profiting from Dominican baseball," for receiving $950,000 of Rivera's money despite not having anything to do with Rivera's development.
That $950,000 is part of a $1.8 million deal the Diamondbacks pledged to pay him after he turned 16. Garcia-Roberts also found that these deals are made verbally, so no records can be found if a team decides they do not want to pay the kids.
MLB finds more players in the Dominican Republic than anywhere outside of the United States, so the league sees the country as a hotbed for talent. They work to sell the kids and families on a dream that they can become the next Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo or whichever Dominican star they look up to. Oftentimes, like in Rivera's case, the players and families they talk to come from poor financial backgrounds.
Some takeaways from the story:
#garcia #diamondbacks
Gus Garcia-Roberts, an investigative reporter who specializes in sports, released the article on Thursday, Sept. 10. Rivera is at the forefront as Garcia-Roberts exposes Santo Caraballo, whom Garcia-Roberts describes as "one of the most notorious moneylenders profiting from Dominican baseball," for receiving $950,000 of Rivera's money despite not having anything to do with Rivera's development.
That $950,000 is part of a $1.8 million deal the Diamondbacks pledged to pay him after he turned 16. Garcia-Roberts also found that these deals are made verbally, so no records can be found if a team decides they do not want to pay the kids.
MLB finds more players in the Dominican Republic than anywhere outside of the United States, so the league sees the country as a hotbed for talent. They work to sell the kids and families on a dream that they can become the next Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo or whichever Dominican star they look up to. Oftentimes, like in Rivera's case, the players and families they talk to come from poor financial backgrounds.
Some takeaways from the story:
#garcia #diamondbacks
2 months ago
