Multiple players who were in line to receive bonuses among the top of the class in January have had those deals fall apart because of Major League Baseball’s investigations into their ages and identities. The same thing has happened to several players for classes beyond 2025 who were expected to sign for big bonuses.
One of those players is 2027 shortstop Cesar Altagracia, who made recent headlines for his $3.5 million agreement with the Padres falling apart when, according to what was first reported by Nathanael Perez Nero of Diario Libre, Major League Baseball delivered an investigation that claimed the player had falsified his age.
It’s an unusual case because of the potential bonus size and because the player had traveled internationally for baseball since he was 11. A representative for the player said they are “waiting for all the investigations to conclude” before commenting.
All 30 teams line up deals to sign players multiple years before they are eligible to sign. I wrote a story 10 years ago about how early agreements were already prominent, but were accelerating to the point where teams were starting to compete for 14-year-olds. Today, those agreements are happening even earlier. MLB is not trying to stop these agreements. These investigations are about MLB trying to detect whether a player is using his own age and identity.
What is happening here?
MLB’s data on age and identity investigations are private. Anecdotally, club officials and agents have shared more examples of MLB catching prominent amateur players with agreements in place for either the high six-figures or $1 million up over the past 18 months than any time since I started covering international signings in 2008.
What’s especially noticeable is that now those players are being caught at a younger age. MLB investigates any player who signs for a bonus above $20,000 prior to approving his contract. There are also 150 players who are considered “Level 2” prospects—a group of prominent amateur prospects—who MLB investigates the year before they are eligible to sign.
MLB also investigates other amateur players in targeted instances. Now, MLB is investigating players who are still three classes away from signing who have big money commitments lined up. Team officials have generally praised MLB for that effort to keep up with the speed of the market and investigate those players more aggressively.
Does that mean age fraud is on the rise?
No.
Well, it is possible that a bunch of people have, within a recent window, both started to falsify players’ ages in greater numbers while also doing so in a way that is allowing MLB to catch these potential big bonus players with what seems like greater frequency.
What does seem to be happening is that—for whatever reason—MLB’s competency at catching players using falsified ages appears to have gotten significantly better over the last year and a half. That doesn’t mean the prevalence of age fraud is up. The change, it seems, is in the players MLB is catching and how early in the process that’s happening.
For most of the time that I have covered international signings, clubs have viewed MLB’s investigations with skepticism. Teams have hired their own investigators and relied on area scouts to do background work on a player’s age and identity.
There have been cases—some involving seven-figure signings—where club officials from other teams have said they wouldn’t sign the player because their area scout knew the player was using a false age, only for those signings to continue without issue.
Over the past year, MLB is changing its reputation. Whatever may have changed, MLB having an investigative unit that’s more effective in preventing fraud is a welcome sign for the industry, both for the clubs and for the players who want to compete on an even playing field.
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Publish date : 2024-11-05 11:00:00
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