The Baltimore Orioles recently inaugurated a state of the art Orioles Dominican Baseball Academy in San Antonio de Guerra, east of the Dominican capital city on Tuesday, 16 January 2024.. It took five years to be built. The center has three baseball fields, batting cages, pitching mounds, gym equipment, residential housing and more.
President Luis Abinader and Sports Minister Francisco Camacho attended the inauguration. Also present were Dominican Republic Commissioner of Baseball Junior Noboa, Orioles Executive Vice President and General Manager Mike Elias, and Orioles Vice President of International Scouting and Operations Koby Perez.
The new factory of future baseball greats will host Dominican and international prospects as they train to enter the Baltimore system. The facility seeks to support scouting and player development, keep the team’s minor league pipeline flowing and preserve winning baseball for years to come.
The complex will house more than 100 players, coaches, and staff, providing dormitory-style rooms and entertainment spaces and includes three classrooms and a computer lab, which will provide on-site learning and an education plan for each player, as well as a dining room that will offer daily nutritious meals.
Landowner and developer Dominican Brian Mejia of Brison SRL led the project. The Orioles were represented by renowned Dominican academy architect José Mella, who is considered one of the foremost training facility architects in the Dominican Republic, having designed around half of the current academies in the DR today.
The O’s went 101-61 in 2023. In heading the inauguration events, Orioles Executive Vice President and General Manager Mike Elias said: “We’ve done a lot in five years. We have the best record in the American League. We have the top Minor League system in all of baseball. But this is our group’s most important achievement in these five years.”
“I think that this academy, and the Orioles’ presence in the Dominican Republic, is a big statement that it is impossible to excel in the Major Leagues without an excellent program in this country,” said Elias.
In the years shortly before Elias’ arrival, Baltimore was uninvolved with the international prospects market. That changed when Elias took over in November 2018. Samuel Basallo, the Orioles’ No. 5 prospect per MLB Pipeline, was signed out of the DR in January 2021, and the club has brought in multiple classes of top talent, including 19 more players on the MLB’s Monday, 15 January 2024 International Signing Day.
The Orioles is hosting a clinic for kids from communities across the Dominican Republic at the academy on Wednesday, 17 January 2024. The organization and the Orioles Advocates are providing 150 baseball gloves to the clinic participants. O’s players, coaches, and alumni will teach the participants from across the DR baseball skills throughout the day.
Read more:
MLB
Listin Diario
MASNSports
17 January 2024