My Spin - The Latino Market

 

Every Mets minor league follower knows that the Mets pre Steve Cohen have always operated behind the curve when it came to scouting, recruiting, signing, and developing Latin teenage prospects.

Oh, there are exceptions. Jose Reyes comes to mind. But most top Mets Latin players have come from other teams 

Carlos Delgado was drafted out of Puerto Rico by Toronto.

Carlos Beltran was drafted by Kansas City.

Pedro Martinez started out a Dodger.

The Wilpon era was famously known for spending far too little on scouting and signing bonuses down south. I always was told it came from prejudice, not ignorance. Simply put, they wanted to build their team with American players.

Yes, exceptions are Francisco Alvarez, Ronny Mauricio, Amed Rosario, and Eduardo Alfonzo , but history is littered with mucho dinero spent on household names like Yohairo Cuevas, Freddy Valdez, Sebastian Espino, Gregory Guerrero, Fernando Martinez, Juan Urbina, Kenny Hernandez, and, my all time favorite, Francisco Pena.

I've written numerous posts on the crooked, cruel, and sometimes inhumane treatment of the kids they would sign. Everyone knows they were as young as 16 when they were signed but many don't realize this all starts with filling them up with steroids beginning as young as 12 years old.

The percentage of Latin players busted for PEDs vs. the entire league is far greater than whites or blacks. 

Between 2005-2017, there have been more than 1,000 positive cases of drug use in the MLB. Out of the 30,000 drug tests conducted by the agency, 0.2% are positive for performance-enhancing substances, half of which belong to Dominican baseball players. 

The use of steroids has long been widespread among baseball players from the Dominican Republic. 16 out of the 20 players in the big leagues who were punished for using PEDs were of Dominican nationality. This disproportionate statistic shows the exploitative business baseball has become for young Dominican baseball players. One of the main factors in the use of performance-enhancing narcotics is poverty. In a country where 40% of the population is considered low-income, many players seek to surpass other athletes to get signed by a recognized scout. 

For most of these boys, baseball equals a chance to escape generational poverty. This necessity and lack of education are one of the main reasons steroid use is so high. Since 1995, the Dominican Republic has led any other foreign nation in international rosters. Yet, the country is also leading the doping roster which leads to the other factor causing the steroid crisis: unreasonable accessibility. 

Anabolic steroids are completely legal in the Dominican Republic, making it quite simple for Dominican players to obtain them. There is no requirement for a prescription; all you have to do is ask for them at the pharmacy, as Alex Rodriguez did. Rodriguez acknowledged using PEDs while playing for the Rangers between 2002 and 2003. Furthermore, Rodriguez constantly mentioned how comfortable it was to obtain them in the Dominican Republic. 

PEDs like Primobolan and Durabolin are considerably cheap and can be acquired for less than 30 dollars in the Dominican Republic. Moreover, other anabolic substances like stanozolol and boldenone are extremely popular among young athletes because of their easy accessibility in practically any countrified pharmacy. 

These children never stood a chance.  They were literally bought from their parents by the busteros and put into mandatory baseball camps.

At 12 years old!

On a personal note, one of first private conversations I had with Steve Cohen was over the lack of respect the Wilpons had shown in the past re: this process.

I went into a history of the minimal participation by the Mets in the past and what looked like a once again dismal prediction for the first draft under his ownership.

He said "he would be all over this".

Low and behold, the Mets announced that they had stolen away a second top 30 prospect.

The advanced word is that Mets fans will be very happy with the prospects signed both in 2024 and 2025.

Already named is a 2024 catcher out of Venezuela named Yovanny Rodriguez. 

Ben Badler of Baseball America wrote about Y-Rod:

Rodriguez is another elite talent eligible to sign in 2024 and for some scouts the No. 1 catcher in the class, on par with many of the other elite Venezuelan amateur catchers from recent years. Rodriguez earns glowing reviews for his defense, where he has the attributes in place to develop into a plus defender. He has soft hands and stellar quickness with a plus arm and an efficient release. That allows him to register pop times under 1.9 seconds in games on his best this with sharp accuracy. It’s a well-rounded skill set for a catcher, too, as his hitting ability stands out, with a high contact rate from the right side of the plate and he flashes good power for 16.