Jairo Beras Signs with Texas Rangers; Prompts MLB Investigation
By Editorial Staff
Word of Dominican prospect Jairo Beras’s $4.5 million contract agreement with the Texas Rangers sent a wave through the Major League Baseball world yesterday. Teams were outraged over the signing, as it was unclear if the teenager was eligible to be signed. Beras’s true age is being questioned, and the situation has led to an MLB investigation.
Initial headlines were fairly unassuming; the Rangers reached an agreement with a Dominican outfield prospect named Jairo Beras. The amount of money figured to raise some eyebrows, but other than that this story seemed fairly vanilla.
However, other major league clubs were furious with the reported agreement as they were under the impression that Beras wasn’t eligible to be signed until July 2nd of 2012. The Rangers didn’t simply do their homework while other teams dropped the ball; until recently it had been reported that Beras was 16 years old, not 17 as he’s now reporting.
Jeff Passan tweeted that Major League baseball was under the impression that Beras was 16 as well and thus ineligible to be signed. Ben Badler of Baseball America later reported that Beras has been representing himself as a 16-year-old. Badler added that if Beras is reporting a new birth date he will likely not only be in trouble with MLB but also Dominican authorities.
While this situation could get ugly, it is interesting that an international player could have actually benefited from being older rather than younger.
For more on the Rangers, be sure to check out Nolan Writin’.
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