Dozens of young Dominican baseball hopefuls have signed for very large sums of money, but as the years passed, most have never made it to the Big Leagues. The large bonus is no guarantee of success. Josephang Bernhart received a US$1.1 million bonus in January 1997 from the Toronto Blue Jays, and Ricardo Arambolas also received US$1.5 million that same year from the New York Yankees. These signings were big news back then because of the very large sums involved. For many major league teams (MLB), the failures seemed to stem from the fact that such huge bonuses killed the drive needed to succeed in baseball, and failure resulted.
In contrast, there is a pretty long list of players that signed for “pennies” and became stars for their various teams: Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero, Sammy Sosa and Damaso Garcia are just a few that come to mind. Garcia signed for US$7,500 with the Yankees and went on to play for the Yankees, Toronto and Atlanta.
Bernhart, however, while projected to be the next Alex Rodriguez, never got out of the minor leagues.
While the failures are somewhat newsworthy, the successes are also important: Nomar Mazara (US$5.0 M); Miguel Sano (US$3.15 M) and Gary Sanchez (US$3.0 M) are three who have certainly earned their big bonuses. There is Ronald Guzman, who signed the same day as Nomar Mazara, and for US$3.5 million, played in 123 games for the Texas Rangers last year, but has only appeared in 68 this year, after going on the Disabled List with a pulled hamstring early on. Yet another player in the Forgotten Drawer is Eliar Hernandez, who signed for US$3.0 million with the Kansas City Royals in 2011; and Wander Mateo, who signed with St Louis for US$3.1 million in 2009, had the contract annulled because of physical issues. He was later signed for US$512,000 by the Arizona Diamondbacks and threw 8.0 innings in 2013, 14.1 in 2014 and is currently working in the minor league teams of the Diamondbacks.
And, of course the list goes on and on: Ariel Ovando ($2.6 M with Houston); Joel Guzman ($2.2 M with the Dodgers); Rafael Rodriguez ($2.5 M with the Giants) and never got out of A class baseball.
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Diario Libre
20 August 2019