A prospect who had a massive deal lined up with the San Diego Padres is reportedly not whom he says is.
An MLB investigation has found that top Dominican teenage prospect Cesar Altagracia falsified his paperwork and is actually 19 years old, not 14 as he previously claimed, according to ESPN.
The teenager reportedly had a verbal agreement to sign with the Padres as an international free agent for roughly $4 million once he become eligible in January 2027, when he would have supposedly been 16 years old.
That figure signals he was seen as one of the biggest prospects in his class. Only three players in this year’s cycle signed for more than $4 million. The man also performed well as a member of the Dominican Republic team in the 2022 U-12 Baseball World Cup and the U-15 Pan American Championships, according to Baseball America’s Ben Badler, who posted videos of him making hard contact in June.
Cases like this aren’t unprecedented in the Dominican Republic, where children are often scooped up by teams well before their supposed free agency and placed in academies while awaiting promised deals that might or might not be delivered. It is a system where corruption and subterfuge are commonplace, mostly at the expense of the players.
There was a similar incident in 2009, when a supposedly 19-year-old Washington Nationals prospect going by the name of Esmailyn “Smiley” Gonzalez turned out to be the 23-year-old Carlos Alvarez Daniel Lugo. Unfortunately for the Nationals, this was after he got his bonus of $1.4 million. The revelation precipitated the downfall of Nationals manager Jim Bowden, who was also investigated for skimming money from international signees.
There was also Danny Almonte, a Little League World Series star born in the Dominican Republic who turned out to be two years older than his parents claimed.
In the case of Altagracia, ESPN notes that MLB often suspends players found to have falsified their age for one year before being allowed to apply for reinstatement.