{"id":1299,"date":"2026-09-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dwts-elimination.myftp.biz\/?p=1299"},"modified":"2026-09-10T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T09:00:00","slug":"how-the-dominican-baseball-factory-traps-young-players-and-their-families-with-false-promises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwts-elimination.myftp.biz\/?p=1299","title":{"rendered":"How the Dominican Baseball Factory Traps Young Players and Their Families With False Promises"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Reporting Highlights<\/h3>\n
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  • Free-for-All:<\/strong> The Dominican Republic produces more major league ballplayers than any country outside the U.S., but the industry is essentially unregulated.<\/li>\n
  • Open Secret:<\/strong> Major league teams skirt the rule that they can\u2019t sign a prospect until he\u2019s 16 by offering boys as young as 11 handshake deals, in some cases for millions of dollars.<\/li>\n
  • Stolen Promises:<\/strong> With enormous sums promised to poor families, moneylenders exploit them by offering loans at exorbitant interest rates and find ways to scam them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    On an evening in late 2021, in a pristine baseball complex in central Santo Domingo, a baby-faced 14-year-old outfielder in athletic gear named Belfi Rivera huddled in front of a computer screen. Next to him was John Carmona, who had been Belfi\u2019s trainer and de facto caretaker since he was 11 years old. In a nearby office, Belfi\u2019s parents stared anxiously at a separate computer. On the screen, calling into the Dominican Republic, were representatives of the Arizona Diamondbacks, there for a conversation that promised to shift forever the fortunes of Belfi and his parents.<\/p>\n

    The team, they would soon learn, had agreed to pay Belfi $1.8 million after his 16th birthday. It was a deal Carmona had negotiated without consulting Belfi or his parents. It was also a handshake agreement that skirted Major League Baseball\u2019s rules that bar teams from signing players younger than 16. Every year, all 30 major league teams reach preacuerdos, or early deals, with hundreds of Dominican prospects \u2014 a practice they make little attempt to hide. (The Diamondbacks did not respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n

    The baseball men said Belfi was now part of \u201cla familia.\u201d They asked him about his favorite player and how he learned to swing his bat so fast and whether he understood the importance of discipline. The conversation washed over Belfi, who, on the rare occasions when he spoke, did so in a tumbling, nervous cadence. He had spent his childhood in a shanty outside of the capital. Meals often consisted of sugary cornmeal or a piece of bread. But he had a talent \u201cgifted by God,\u201d as an early trainer put it, with the skills \u2014 speed, arm, glove, contact hitting \u2014 treasured by scouts. The size of this bonus, once made official, would establish him as one of the highest-paid prospects outside of the United States.<\/p>\n

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    \u201cPaper Trail\u201d Podcast<\/h3>\n

    Learn more about this story on ProPublica\u2019s podcast \u201cPaper Trail.\u201d<\/p>\n

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