Venezuelan prospects get chance to shine in DR

BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic -- Former Major League star Magglio Ordonez couldn’t stop fidgeting in the dugout, and he certainly wasn’t going to sit down with so much action happening on the field at the Trainer Partnership Program Showcase at the Mets' Dominican academy.

Spontaneously, the excited former All-Star dropped into his batting stance. He then picked up an imaginary bat and focused on his hands while talking himself through the entire slow-motion swing.

When young outfield prospect Gustavo Armas approached him after a round of batting practice a few minutes later, Ordonez showed exactly what the teenager was doing right – and wrong.

“I’m here to share my experience with kids and develop them into good baseball players,” said Ordonez, who as owner of the Caribes de Anzoategui baseball team in Venezuela also operates the Caribes Top Player Academy for prospects in the country. “We are like a family. We spend so much time with them, it’s like they are my sons, too, and I want them to be successful. My hope is that one day we will have as many players from Venezuela as the Dominican Republic does, the country with the most Latinos in the Major Leagues.”

Ordonez and former teammate Carlos Guillen are among the hundreds of trainers, scouts, baseball officials and prospects at this week’s showcase. The Trainer Partnership Program, created last summer as part of MLB's overall efforts in Latin America, is celebrating its fourth showcase overall and the first that includes prospects from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela on the same field.

“Given everything that’s going on in Venezuela, it was very important for the Venezuelan trainers to get the opportunity to bring their players to try out for MLB clubs,” said Morgan Sword, senior vice president of league economics and operations for Major League Baseball. “We are doing everything we can to support and continue to develop Venezuelan baseball despite the political circumstances there.”

In all, 28 of the 66 trainers in the program are from Venezuela, including Kevin Moscatel, who operates Caribes Top Player Academy and trains Armas.

“I applaud MLB for getting all of these kids from Venezuela together in the same place because that’s something we as teams can’t do and we benefit from it,” one American League international scouting director said. “I just absolutely love it, and I know a lot of teams feel the same way. There’s lots of talent in the country and we need to see them.”

He’s right.

All teams scout in Venezuela, and the Astros, Rays, Phillies, Rockies, Cubs and Tigers have the strongest presence on the ground there. In all, more than 300 amateur players from the country have signed with Major League teams since the 2018-19 international signing period began July 2, and close to 1,300 have signed in the past five years. There were 74 players from Venezuela on Opening Day rosters last season, and thousands more are thriving in the Minor Leagues.

“Baseball is the No. 1 sport in the country, and it will always be that way,” said Guillen, a top executive with the Tigres de Aragua baseball team in Venezuela and owner of the Carlos Guillen Baseball Academy. “Magglio and I are both trying to do what’s best for baseball and keep developing the game in our country. We just want them to have good habits and learn about all of the good things that can come with playing baseball, because these are good kids.”

These kids are also a resilient group.

A Trainer Partnership Program Showcase for Venezuelan teens was held in Aruba in November because club scouts found it easier to travel to the island compared to Venezuela. This week’s showcase comes one month after the United States government and Major League Baseball issued advisories to avoid travel to the country.

The Venezuelan teens say they cope with the circumstances back home by concentrating on baseball and a brighter future.

“There are not as many scouts as there used to be in Venezuela, and we all understand why, so we take them to different locations to be scouted,” said veteran agent Alexis Quiroz, who represents several prospects at his AQ Sport Agency. “But we still have hope that one day our leagues will be strong again, all the scouts will come back, and we can have lots of academies again. We hope there will be more opportunities in our country, not just in baseball, but in life.”