A visit to the Nationals Dominican academy in San Cristobol

When I spoke with him last June, Jose Baez was in his fourth year running the Nationals Dominican academy at Loma del Sueño in San Cristobol. It was the morning after a big rainstorm, and the day’s Dominican Summer League (DSL) games were canceled. I spoke to Baez in a small office where players waited on line to file documents in anticipation of receiving their first paychecks of the season. (Typically, players stay at the academies all year, but only receive pay during the DSL season.)

I wanted to include my interview with Baez in my long article on Dominican baseball in Triple Canopy, which you can read here. Then Bowden and Rijo were fired while I was in the middle of my last edit, and it seemed like a bit of a red herring to have Baez in the middle of the story without any allusion to unfolding events.

Baez signed professionally out of the DR in 1972, and played 114 games for the Seattle Mariners in 1977-78. He continued playing professionally, in the U.S. and DR, until 1987. In 1993, he took a job in the U.S. as a minor league instructor for the Twins organization, and has worked out of Dominican academies since 1997.

Some excerpts from the interview, here:

Can you tell me about July 2?

People in baseball make it a big day because most of the players that sign that day are going to get big money. That doesn’t mean if you don’t sign that day you can’t sign in September, October, November. … We don’t have a lot of guys who are going to get big money. You can count them on two hands and maybe have two fingers left.

Those are guys that when you look at them, you’re going to compare them to people that the organization picked in the U.S. draft. For example, Ynoa, whoever signs Ynoa, they know for sure that they’re taking a first round guy. …

A lot of the time it depends on who has the players. If you are a no-name guy (adviser), nobody is going to make a big deal out of the guy that you have. So if you are a top guy with a prospect, then you’re going to get a lot of money for your guy. But if you are a no-name guy, forget about it.

What is the adjustment like for a kid who comes to play for you here?

I think I do this differently than everyone else. Before we sign a player we have them here at the academy for at least two weeks before we sign them. They walk around with the teams and do what everybody else does, so that by the time they sign they know what’s going on. …

In particular it’s very hard for the ones from Venezuela, because they’re very far from their homes. We have every Sunday off here. The rest of the guys they go home on Saturday afternoon and come back Sunday night. But the Venezuelans stay here. I try to come on Saturday or on Sunday to see how they’re doing. If they need anything, I try to get it for them. If they want to go out I say go ahead, go to town. …

I was 18 the first time I went to the United States. I didn’t speak any English. There was one other guy who spoke Spanish, but then I was sent down to Rookie ball, in Utah. So I know what it’s like.

What about when you have to cut a player?

That’s part of it. If you’re a doctor and you have a surgery, ok, something went wrong, and your patient dies. Next time, same thing. What are they going to do? They’re going to suspend your license. Here, it’s the same. You’re allowed to keep a kid for four years now, but why wait so long? If in two years you don’t show you can play for me, that you can’t compete, we have to get someone else. It’s an industry, if you don’t produce, I have to get somebody else. …

I got boys that were released form another organization. And what I do, before I sign them, I tell them ok, make sure you show those people that released you they made a mistake.