The Dominican Republic produces more major league ballplayers than any country outside the U.S., but the industry is essentially unregulated.
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industry → produce → U.S.
- Open Secret: Major league teams skirt the rule that they can’t sign a prospect until he’s 16 by offering boys as young as 11 handshake deals, in some cases for millions of dollars.
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he → skirt → dollars
With enormous sums promised to poor families, moneylenders exploit them by offering loans at exorbitant interest rates and find ways to scam them.
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moneylenders → promise → them
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
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who → write → story
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.
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outfielder → name → screen
In a nearby office, Belfi’s parents stared anxiously at a separate computer.
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parents → star → 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.
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that → call → Belfi
The team, they would soon learn, had agreed to pay Belfi $1.8 million after his 16th birthday.
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they → learn → birthday
It was a deal Carmona had negotiated without consulting Belfi or his parents.
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Carmona → negotiate → Belfi
It was also a handshake agreement that skirted Major League Baseball’s rules that bar teams from signing players younger than 16.
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that → skirt → 16
Every year, all 30 major league teams reach preacuerdos, or early deals, with hundreds of Dominican prospects — a practice they make little attempt to hide.
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they → reach → attempt
(The Diamondbacks did not respond to a request for comment.)
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Diamondbacks → respond → comment
The baseball men said Belfi was now part of “la familia.”
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Belfi → say → familia
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.
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he → ask → discipline
The conversation washed over Belfi, who, on the rare occasions when he spoke, did so in a tumbling, nervous cadence.
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he → wash → cadence
He had spent his childhood in a shanty outside of the capital.
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He → spend → capital
Meals often consisted of sugary cornmeal or a piece of bread.
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Meals → consist → bread
But he had a talent “gifted by God,” as an early trainer put it, with the skills — speed, arm, glove, contact hitting — treasured by scouts.
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trainer → have → scouts
The size of this bonus, once made official, would establish him as one of the highest-paid prospects outside of the United States.
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size → make → States
If he fulfilled his promise, he might join an ever-expanding list of Dominican legends: San Francisco Giant Juan Marichal, the winningest pitcher of the 1960s; Tony Fernandez and George Bell, Toronto Blue Jays teammates who hailed from the same baseball-mad town of San Pedro de Macoris; Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz, the pitcher and sluggers who in the early 2000s turned the Caribbean nation into an unlikely bastion of Boston Red Sox fandom; and swaggering, bat-flipping modern superstars like Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the New York Mets’ Juan Soto, and the San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. — with playing contracts totaling more than $1.6 billion — who have helped to revitalize baseball’s popularity.
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who → fulfil → popularity
For the past four decades, no country outside the United States has sent more players to the majors than the Dominican Republic.
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country → send → Republic
With a population under 12 million, it is roughly the size of Ohio, a state that last year claimed two dozen major league players.
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that → claim → players
The Dominican Republic had 144, roughly 10% of the league.
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Republic → have → league
Talented players are sent to practice full time at one of hundreds of academies when they are as young as 10 years old.
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they → send → academies
For the Past 14 Years, the Dominican Republic Has Dominated International Signings by Major League Baseball Teams
The league signed more than 12,700 international rookies from 2012 to 2026, half of whom were born in the Dominican Republic.
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half → dominate → Republic
That’s how old Belfi was when he went off in tears to live in the home of a stranger who trained boys on a shaggy ball field in the capital.
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who → ’ → capital
The best players are then sold to increasingly more prominent trainers until they wind up at an elite academy run by men like Carmona, who have close relations with major league teams and receive a sizable percentage of a player’s signing bonus.
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who → sell → bonus
As a child, Belfi never cared for baseball.
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Belfi → care → baseball
He started playing at 7, he told me, because a local coach would drag him from his house and cuff him on the head if he tried to escape to a nearby river to be with his friends.
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he → start → friends
But even as a young boy, he understood the sport likely represented his family’s one shot out of grinding poverty.
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sport → understand → poverty
During that video call in 2021, it seemed that he had clinched it.
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he → seem → it
But in two and a half years, the $1.8 million Belfi was promised would be almost all gone.
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Belfi → promise → years
Carmona received $630,000, which represented his 35% commission.
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which → receive → commission
But more than $950,000 went to someone who had no hand in teaching Belfi how to play baseball.
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who → go → baseball
His name is Santo Caraballo, one of the most notorious moneylenders profiting from Dominican baseball.
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name → profit → baseball
His business partner is a national hero and, 10 years after his retirement, still a commanding figure within Major League Baseball: David Ortiz, known universally as “Big Papi.”
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partner → command → Papi
In a brief conversation with Caraballo, he told me his business was not the biggest or “that lucrative.”
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business → tell → me
I made multiple attempts to reach Caraballo again, including sending him a summary of my findings.
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I → make → findings
He never responded.
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He → respond → ?
Thanks to early agreements, prestamistas, or moneylenders, like Caraballo now wield singular power within Dominican baseball, amassing millions of dollars by persuading undereducated parents to sign away portions of their sons’ future bonuses in exchange for loans with exorbitant interest rates.
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Thanks → wield → rates
…and 409 more, not listed.
