Jim Bowden will resign later today as the general manager of the Washington Nationals, under pressure of the elder Mr. Lerner.
Valuations and ethics: When poverty meets wealth, in the Domincan Republic. A clash of culture? The promise of youth. Age. Pricing it. Valuations and ethics and manipulations. The system.
In July 2006, the Washington Nationals signed shortstop Esmailyn González with a $1.4 million bonus.
As reported on MLB July 2, 2006, “Incoming president Stan Kasten considers the Esmailyn González signing the equivalent to the Braves signing outfielder Andruw Jones and shortstop Rafael Furcal in 1993 and 1996, respectively. Jones and Furcal are now stars in the big leagues. ‘This is an important signing,’ Kasten said via telephone. ‘We can now compete for the best talent in Latin America. We will have a presence there.’”
“After midnight on Sunday morning, Bowden, Rijo, Brown, Kasten and principal owner Mark Lerner met with Gonzalez and Vizcaino at the Capital Grille and put together a deal two hours later.” MLB July 2, 2006
In May 2008, the Chicago White Sox fired their director of player personnel, David Wilder, according to the Chicago Tribune. David Wilder was when the White Sox fired him, overseeing their entire minor league department and player development staff as well as the club’s Latin American operations. The Chicago White Sox then asked MLB to investigate once they turned up internal questions about the Dominican Republic. Findings from that major league baseball’s investigation were then turned over to federal authorities.
In the summer of 2008, the Boston Herald quoted an unnamed baseball source as saying Pablo Lantigua, the Red Sox’s Dominican scouting supervisor, was fired in July 2008 for receiving a kickback of an unspecified amount on a player he recommended, according to the Boston Herald.
Ah, when poverty meets wealth. Valuation and ethics, in good times, in a changing world: so the story of Esmailyn Gonzalez.
Long before this investigation into the signing off Gonzales, Jim Bowden (general manager) and Stan Kasten were quoted as saying opposing teams tried to sabotage them from signing Gonzalez. They would not name the organizations in question. So how much of the recent probe is cloak and dagger bad blood from another organization interested in this kid, and getting a pound of flesh with the help of the FBI? The Twins, Yankees, Red Sox and Rangers were all after Gonzalez’s services. Sour grapes?
On July 13, 2008, the Washington Post’s Chico Harlan had reported that the Washington Nationals in 2006 decided to fortify their scouting efforts in the Dominican Republic. Recognizing the rewards of a central effort to rebuild, “team officials offered support but knew of the dangers.” At the time, with the Lerners as the fresh owners, the Nationals had just hired a new president, Stan Kasten. Kasten, a long-time baseball guy coming from the Braves, had inherited an organization with no top Dominican prospects. He spoke to his assistant general manager Jose Rijo who oversaw the team’s Dominican academy about how to change that, and why to be careful.
once they turned up internal questions about the Dominican Republic, after the White Sox had asked MLB to investigate, those findings from the investigation of MLB were then turned over to federal authorities. The FBI also has been investigating the scouting practices of Washington Nationals in Latin America as it relates to the 2006 signing of shortstop Esmailyn González, according to a SI.com.
(Jose Rijo was an assistant to Jim Bowden, having both joined the new Washington organization when major league baseball sold the franchise to the Lerner Group. Bowden’s predecessor took a job running the New York Mets. Rijo formerly ptched for the Reds.)
In a story copyrighted by The Associated Press, “SI.com reported that two unidentified sources inside baseball say former Latin America scout Jorge Oquendo, who confirmed being contacted by the FBI to SI but denied skimming bonuses, has worked for David Wilder and Jim Bowden,” and according the National Post, linking the FBI’s investigation of Bowden and Rijo to the former Chicago White Sox director of player personnel. Jorge Oquendo worked for David Wilder in 2006 and 2007, as well as for Jim Bowden with the Reds in 1994 and again with the Reds from 2000 through 2003. Oquendo, who no longer works in baseball, told SI.com that Jim Bowden “didn’t even know who I was.”
According to Washington Post’s article by Chico Harlan in July 2008, with the help of Rijo, the Nationals had made the search for Latin American talent “a linchpin of their organizational plan.” According to a January 2007 article in the Washington Post by Barry Svrluga, Jose Rijo indicated that he had put “close to $10 million” of his own money into developing the the baseball academy that bears his name in San Cristobal, with seven ballfields, dorms, and a cafeteria for their prospects, with tenants paying Rijo $30,000 to $50,000 per month in rent. The Rijo’s Academy was on a site cleared away just up the hill from his home town, serving the Nationals, the Detroit Tigers and the San Diego Padres. The Nationals were set up in the academy developed by Rijo, with about 100 players signed with bonuses from $8,000 to $200,000 currently there, Rijo said.
February 26, 2009
By Chico Harlan
Washington
Post Staff Writer
SANTANA, Dominican Republic – Carlos Daniel Alvarez Lugo authored a whopper of a tale when he was actually 17, helped by accomplices who he is reluctant to identify, assuming both a fraudulent age, 13, and a fraudulent name, Esmailyn González. As with the case of Washington Nationals minor leaguer Carlos Alvarez Lugo, when a major league baseball team signs a Dominican prospect, the MLB office in Santo Domingo assigns an investigator. The team must obtain a birth certificate and transfer all the information to a yellow card which is then approved by the Civil State Office, receiving a stamp. The club must also present the national identification cards of both parents, 2 pictures of the player with pertinent information — addresses and phone numbers — as well as a signed contract. Clubs request an investigation if there is the remote possibility anything could be amiss. Last week Sports Illustrated first reported the truth about Alvarez Lugo’s story, involving his own impoverished past and the way lives can change with a sum as great as $1.4 million, the largest bonus the Nationals have ever granted a Latin American prospect. The fraud involved a 20-year-old shortstop who claimed he was 16-year-old.
(“The player, prior to signing with the Nationals, had trained at Rijo’s academy and was represented by trainer Basilio Vizcaino, a childhood friend of Rijo’s,” according to ESPN.com).
Per the Washington Post, “José Rijo, who has worked for the Washington Nationals since 2005 as a special assistant to General Manager, Jim Bowden, had taken a forced leave of absence from his job this weekend and returned to the Dominican Republic. Now, that leave has become permanent. Reached Wednesday night, Rijo was not yet aware of the firing. Asked if he’d heard anything, Rijo responded, “No, nothing.” A Nationals public relations official said the team would not have any announcement forthcoming Wednesday night. President Stan Kasten did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.” (According the National Post, Rijo told MLB.com that he and nine others have been dismissed.)
Per the Washington Post, “José Rijo, whose involvement in the scouting and securing of the player he said he knew as Esmailyn González, is being investigated. Signing of this player has cost him his job with the Nationals, who have decided to let Rijo go. Last year, Bowden and Rijo acknowledged speaking with the FBI about the matter as part of a federal probe into baseball’s Latin American scouting practices. Bowden, speaking this week to reporters at the team’s spring training facility in Viera, Fla., reiterated that he is innocent. Rijo emphatically denied any wrongdoing in an interview in San Cristobal earlier this week. Jose Rijo, who represents the Nationals in his native Dominican Republic, said the club’s paperwork was in order, and that the MLB office confirmed the player’s age for at least three teams, including Washington. “I don’t care about my job or the money,” Rijo said. “It’s my reputation. That’s what matters. That’s what I have to fight for. That’s why I have to speak. . . . We were all fooled.”
Per the Washington Post, “Ronaldo Peralta, who runs MLB’s Santo Domingo office, and Lou Melendez, MLB’s vice president of international operations, both declined to comment on the investigation into Alvarez’s deception or to provide specifics about the process. “We couldn’t find it out, and even the baseball office couldn’t find it out at first,” Rijo said. He added that Washington has come across other cases of fraud, but the team discovered the discrepancies early enough to prevent embarrassment. “He did something other kids do. He just did a damn good job of it.”
“The matter, though, has shaken the Nationals to their core, and the futures of General Manager Jim Bowden and Rijo are in play. Two sources in the Dominican Republic said the Nationals are considering abandoning Rijo’s pristine San Cristobal facility in an effort to distance themselves from Rijo, who serves as a special assistant to Bowden. Last week, the club announced Rijo was taking a leave of absence from the club so that he wouldn’t be a distraction and so that he could tend to his ailing mother. Indeed this week, Rijo visited his mother, Gladys Abreu, in her spare San Cristobal home several times, where she could not move from the bed. But he said he did not voluntarily walk away from spring training, where he frequently is in uniform and works with pitchers. ‘They say I take a leave of absence,’ Rijo said this week. ‘I didn’t take it. They give it to me.’
“All-star shortstops Rafael Furcal and Miguel Tejada, the latter of whom is from Bani, are just two of the players who signed professional contracts as teenagers only to have it revealed later that they were two years older than they said at the time. ‘I’m not the first that does that,’ Alvarez said, ‘or the last.’
‘It doesn’t matter, four years,” Pérez said as he sat in his car only a few doors down from Alvarez’s Santana home. “He’s still a good player, and a good player is good no matter if he’s 20 years [old] or 30 years [old]. It doesn’t matter.’
But a 20-year-old Latin American prospect does not command a bonus of $1.4 million. Such rewards go to younger kids whose skills appear developed beyond their years and, with further refinement, could set them apart.”
An Update. About David Wilder. About who he was. When the White Sox fired Wilder, he was the director of player personnel overseeing. Victor Mateo and Domingo Toribio also were terminated with Wilder after a two-month investigation by Major League Baseball’s Department of Investigations, according to a copy-writed story with the Associated Press. This allegedlt involved the White Sox Latin American operations. According to a Google search, in 2005, Wilder interviewed for Boston’s general manager job when Theo Epstein was still in his power struggle with Larry Luchiano, before Epstein returned to the Red Sox. Wilder had a seven-year minor league career as an outfielder in the Oakland and Chicago Cubs systems. In 1982, Wilder played on the Idaho Falls Rookie League team, the lowest level of the Oakland A’s farm system, with Jorge Oquendo. In 1990, he got his first job in player development with Oakland. He must have been hired by Walt Jocketty. In 1991, he headed to Atlanta as assistant director of scouting and player development for Braves. Called a John Schuerholz disciple for his years there, he was schooled from 1991-95 under some of the best in baseball tutelage, including Paul Snyder. In 1996 through 1999 he went to work for the Chicago Cubs as farm director and assistant general manager under Ed Lynch. In 2000, he headed up the interstate to Milwaukee as vice president of player personnel and special assignment scout with the Milwaukee Brewers from 2000-03. He was a member of the United States Olympic Baseball team’s selection committee in 2000 for a team that won the gold medal. In 2004, he joined the White Sox.
On February 23, 2009 Todd Lighty and Oscar Avila reported in the Chicago Tribune: “Those who know the 48-year-old Wilder are stunned by the allegations. They say he was meticulous about finances and didn’t need money. Records also show he made about $185,000 in 2007.”
“As Wilder was ascending through the Sox organization, he was pursuing a costly dream of owning a nightclub in Phoenix, where he lives. According to documents obtained by the Tribune, Wilder in November 2006 opened a night spot, Club Burn, that operated “at a great loss” despite being voted Phoenix’s top gay bar in 2007. Records show it lost about $570,000 in a matter of months and closed its doors in January 2008. In a brief telephone interview, Wilder disputed how much money he lost on Club Burn. He declined to discuss the allegations that cost him his Sox job and then hung up the phone. He has not responded to numerous messages since. His attorney also declined to comment. Wilder at one point owned six homes in the Phoenix area before selling two, according to records.”
“The Milwaukee Brewers are the only organization without a Dominican academy,” (according to ESPN.com).
The blog of Barry Svrluga at the Washington Post has more interesting details on the Washington National saga over the past week.
baseball91