JUPITER, Fla. — The Cardinals’ brass headed for the Dominican Republic today for a barnstorming visit that includes a meeting with more than a couple dozen agents.
Cardinals GM John Mozeliak and two of his top lieutenants — assistant general manager John Abbamondi and farm director Jeff Luhnow — left the spring training facility this morning for a one-day jaunt to the Dominican. This evening, the trio of Cardinals officials will meet with more than 20 agents as part of the organization’s attempt to increase its presence in the area.
Mozeliak said there are many purposes to the quick trip, but meeting with the agents is a continuation of the club’s goal to be a larger player when it comes to bidding on free-agent talent in the Dominican.
In 2005, after several years of absence from the Dominican, the Cardinals opened a facility to house and develop players. It was the first jewel of their re-established scouting in Latin America, an initiative that has reached out to Venezuela, Nicaragua and other countries.
That same fall, colleague Joe Strauss visited the campus in Villa Mella, Dominican Republic, and wrote in The Post-Dispatch about the role agents play in delivering the talent to the major-league team campuses:
Certainly Carlos Christopher sees opportunity as he closely watches one of his players try out at Hogar de los St. Louis Cardinals near Villa Mella. Christopher speaks fluent English and has an easy relationship with several staff members, perhaps because he played infield in the Colorado Rockies’ farm system.
Christopher is a buscon, an agent, who finds and trains players before shepherding them from team to team, trying to find the best price for boys as young as 16. If signed, their next address will be a dormitory or pension house offered by one of 28 Major League clubs that maintain a presence in the country.
Christopher, his Anglicized name, is in his late 30s but looks younger and more athletic than most of the other buscones who lurk around the academy field and covered batting cage. Some of the men also coach loosely organized ligas, which can involve hundreds of children. While no one is certain, it is believed as many as 800 buscones work the countryside.
“We’re the eyes and the ears,” Christopher said. “It’s our job to know what’s going on, where a player might have the best opportunity . . . what a team is looking for.”
When a tryout ends, the dance begins.
If a club shows interest in a player, his representative will meet with a team official to discuss price.
A deal might be made immediately, or the player could be asked to remain for a period of days to confirm his positive first impression in a game setting. Christopher says a $35,000 bonus is the most he has ever obtained.
Mozeliak said a purpose of this trip is to strengthen the team’s relationship with the agents, a show of the Cardinals intent to not only identify the best talent but nurture it and, when necessary, pay the bonuses to get it.
“That is part of our commitment to what we’ve been able to accomplish in the area and the presence we want to have there moving forward,” Mozeliak said.
This is Mozeliak’s first trip to the new campus in the Dominican since being named GM, and it is Abbamondi’s first trip to the Dominican.
A handful of the players signed in the Dominican since the campus opened made their domestic debut last summer with the Gulf Coast League team. That included outfielder Edgar Lara, who the Cardinals signed for a $250,000 bonus as a 16-year-old. He hit .258/.329/.490 for the GCL Cardinals last summer. And Jairo Martinez, who signed for $150,000 and hit .267/.347/.362 in the GCL.
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Interesting story on the declining popularity of baseball in Puerto Rico, by Kevin Baxter, who used to hang around these parts covering the Marlins for The Miami Herald. Gives the context for Eduardo Perez’s program and why he invited Albert Pujols and Jose Oquendo to visit this past winter.
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