The creator, a ProPublica reporter, explains the exploitative system of how MLB teams recruit young players from the Dominican Republic. He uses the specific case study of player Belfi Rivera to illustrate how teams make illegal early agreements, which creates a market for predatory lenders who trap families in debt. The reporter details the financial breakdown of Rivera's contract, implicates baseball legend David Ortiz in blocking reform, and concludes by highlighting MLB's inaction on the issue.
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There’s an open secret in Major League Baseball: MLB teams routinely make handshake deals with young Dominican players, an informal system that has created perfect market conditions for predatory moneylenders.
MLB signs more international players from the Dominican Republic than any other country. Despite widespread acknowledgement that Dominican baseball needs to be overhauled, the industry has only gotten worse.
Watch ProPublica reporter Gus Garcia-Roberts break down his investigation into early agreements and the dangerous industry that has grown around them.
Photography by Christopher Gregory-Rivera for ProPublica
Transcript
This is the dirty truth of how Major League Baseball recruits young players from the Dominican Republic. Playing American baseball has become the Dominican dream. Juan So to. Ortiz into deep right field. Back I spoke to one player named Better Rivera. Belfi had been scouted starting at age seven. By age 10, he was sent to live at a training academy. When he was 14, the Arizona Diamondbacks made an agreement with his trainer in which they would pay him $1,800,000 once he was legally of age to be signed. He walked out of the bank with almost nothing. Teams cannot sign international players until after their sixteenth birthday. Teams routinely flout that rule by making early agreements with the trainers for players as young as 13, 14, even 12 or 11. This informal system has created perfect market conditions for high interest lenders. Impoverished families of these ballplayers learn that their son is gonna be paid a bonus by a Major League Baseball tier. But at the moment they learn that, they haven't received any money. And so these high interest lenders step in offering predatory terms to these families who, for the most part, have no financial experience and are sometimes illiterate. Belfi's family borrowed money from a man named Santo Catabayo, one of the most notorious lenders in Dominican baseball. They said Katabayo offered to buy 10% of Belfi's future signing bonus. In return, he would give them roughly 25,000 upfront, dollars 25,000 for $180,000 that they would owe when Belfi got paid. They then made another deal. His family said Katabayo was gonna loan them $70,000 at 7% monthly interest, which in The United States and many other countries would be illegal. Major League Baseball has taken no steps to curb early agreements. Instead, they say that the only thing that can fix it is an international draft system. Baseball legend David Ortiz, who is business partners with Santo Caraballo, has used his influence to block reform. In 2022, Major League Baseball was pushing hard for the international draft and contract negotiations with the union. Ortiz sent a voice note to players within the union. I'm someone who's covered baseball professionally. I'm also a baseball fan. It was disheartening to see this exploitation of younger players with the implicit okay of Major League Baseball.
