Going Up in Smoke

In the coming weeks, we will focus on Venezuela, a baseball country divided, broke and wracked by violence. At least 29 people died during demonstrations in April. On May 2, people blocked the roads in Caracas with broken concrete, twisted metal and burning trash to protest President Nicolás Maduro’s bid to rewrite the constitution. On May 4, MLB sent all teams a memo about security in the country, and implemented changes regarding scouting and travel. Imagine being a Venezuelan player in the Major Leagues right now, with family and friends back home. Baseball is life there. A way of life that is being threatened.

By César Augusto Márquez

Back in 2011, at the age of 18, Edubray Ramos was released, set free without warning along with many other young prospects in Venezuela by the St. Louis Cardinals, his first Major League Baseball organization.

It still hurts him to remember that day.

Ramos couldn’t help but fear that the doors to his future were slamming shut. The Cardinals, to the surprise of most of the players, were moving their operations to the Dominican Republic.

“They told us that they couldn’t keep all of us and that they were taking with them only the best prospects,” said Ramos, who despite the purge made it to the major leagues last season as a reliever for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Ramos’ story, told in Spanish to La Vida Baseball, is an example of how the current political and economic crisis in Venezuela is affecting baseball inside the country. Back in 2000, there were 22 baseball academies. Today only four survive, run by the Detroit Tigers, Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies.

To add insult to injury, the Venezuelan Summer League, which started in 1997 and was a favorite of scouts looking for hidden gems, closed its doors last year.

Ironically and unfortunately, this infrastructure is collapsing right as Venezuela has entered a baseball golden age. Not only do Miguel Cabrera, José Altuve, “King” Félix Hernández and others rank among the game’s superstars, talent is booming. This season opened with 77 Venezuelans on MLB rosters, the largest number in history. You could argue that they represent the country’s greatest generation ever.

And unless you are a five-tool player, your chances today of getting noticed and signed in Venezuela today are going up in smoke.

Closing Shop

To better understand both the state of Venezuela’s academies and how developments in the country are affecting the game of baseball there, La Vida Baseball spoke with two directors of Latin American scouting and two other scouts who, as a group, combine for 65 years of experience in MLB. Two are based in the United States, one in the Dominican Republic and one in Venezuela. Because they did not have permission from their MLB clubs to discuss the matter publicly, they agreed to speak with us as long as their names were not used.

“There are many reasons why the baseball academies are closing shop in Venezuela,” said the director of international scouting for an MLB team still operating in the country. “Among them, the fears about safety and the economic and social situations.

“And if teams are going to give up their presence in the country, then they will be more careful and selective at the time of signing players, simply because of the cost of relocating them to the Dominican Republic, where most academies are now,” added the director.

Without a doubt, Venezuela faces bleak times and an uncertain future, which has provoked a diaspora and talent drain in recent years. Despite the country holding greater oil reserves than Saudi Arabia, the economy has crashed in large part due to a 66 percent decline in crude oil prices since they hit historic highs in 2008. On top of that, Venezuela is dealing with increasing violence, conflict and death rooted in hardened political differences and human rights issues.

According to official figures, there were 70.1 homicides per 100,000 persons in 2016, among the highest rates in the world. And even though the government has refused since 2015 to disclose the inflation rate, the International Monetary Fund estimates that it will reach 720.5 percent this year, the highest in the Americas, and 2,068.5 percent by 2018.

Angry and frustrated over the decline in purchasing power and the lack of basic supplies and medicine, the people are taking to the streets. The long lines at stores and dispensaries are openly compared to the final years of the Soviet Union.

And concerned about the security of scouts and other MLB personnel, the Office of the Commissioner sent a memo to all clubs on May 4 regarding travel inside the country. To minimize risks, MLB will organize at least three showcases outside Venezuela for prospects. It will also provide security at a facility near Valencia for teams who prefer to hold private tryouts.

“We urge Clubs that continue to scout in the country to take every possible precaution to ensure the safety of its staff, and to avoid unnecessary risks,” said the memo, signed by Kim Ng, Senior Vice President for Baseball Operations.

Baseball as the Way Out

While the baseball infrastructure wobbles, the economic crisis, paradoxically, forced many families to consider the game as their best way out. At a young age, an increasing number of kids are trading in their pencils and schoolbooks for bats and gloves.

This, in turn, has encouraged the growth of a system that operates in the shadows of the Dominican academies and is frequently rife with unsavory operators. Independent scouts, called either agentes or agents, or buscones, translated into “prospectors” or “facilitators,” are offering to train and prepare youngsters for pro tryouts, sometimes on a full-time basis, in exchange for part of the player’s signing bonus — as much as 30 percent in some cases.

“Because of the economic crisis, we will see more and more ballplayers,” said a San Francisco Giants scout. “But the problem is, due to everything going on in Venezuela, fewer high-ranking baseball executives are traveling to the country. That’s why agents are organizing showcases in Aruba or the Dominican Republic, where they take only the talent that will generate the highest signing bonuses.

There’s also less likelihood that in the future we’ll see many superstar players filling up MLB’s rosters.

“We’ll continue seeing some players getting big-time money, but more and more it will be harder to find a player like José Altuve or Martín Prado, both who were signed without being considered outstanding prospects,” added the Giants scout.

The challenging task of scouting a player is further complicated by the country’s political strife.

“Venezuela continues being an important source of talent, and despite the difficulties, you try to visit the country,” said a scouting coordinator for an American League Central Division team who’s based in the Dominican Republic. “However, it’s hard to make the case when games are canceled due to street demonstrations. You spent money without getting a return.”

A scout for a second National League West team offered a more nuanced viewpoint based on other considerations.

“There will always be teams who take the risk and send scouts, mainly from Latin America, who will go see players in Venezuela,” he said. “We will probably see more players than before because more kids will use baseball as a way out. But more and more they will arrive with less education, and that probably will affect their development.”

All of which brings us back to Edubray Ramos.

Why Academies Matter

Tronconero, a small town 98 miles west of the capital of Caracas and just northeast of Valencia, is dry and infernally hot. But when it comes to baseball, it’s fertile ground. It’s the place that gave new life to Ramos’ dream, the Phillies’ baseball academy.

Ramos, today 24 years old, did not end up there immediately after the Cardinals uprooted their academy to the Dominican Republic. The ensuing years serve as a cautionary tale for future prospects, who now can’t even count on the Venezuelan Summer League to bolster their chances of getting noticed and signed.

“I spent two years training on my own,” said Ramos, “while also working at hard physical jobs like at body shops. I even worked for a cleaning service.

“My trainer talked to the Phillies, who decided to give me a look,” Ramos said. “I remember being the last prospect in that tryout. It was already nighttime, and they liked how I threw. But they weren’t ready to make an offer.

“They tried me out at their academy for a month and half. And let me throw in the Venezuelan Summer League. After that, I got a contract and was able to return to baseball. But I don’t know what would have happened to me if that league hadn’t existed then.”

MLB helped start the league back in 1997 to give rookies playing time and experience. Combined with the academies, it ensured that talent got a chance to flourish. To give an example, Bobby Abreu, Magglio Ordóñez, Melvin Mora and Johan Santana, MLB superstars in their prime, all got their first looks at the former Houston Astros’ academy before either being signed by the team or moving on to another academy and the summer league.

“It’s sad that they closed the Venezuelan Summer League,” said the director of international scouting for one of the teams still operating in the country. “We loved it because it allowed us to evaluate the progress of our players in an environment where they felt more comfortable. In the Dominican Republic, they must compete under different conditions. The summer league gave birth to players such as Avisaíl García, Eugenio Suárez, Dixon Machado. And though the league doesn’t exist anymore, we have stayed in Venezuela, thanks to the good experiences we have enjoyed.”

There’s more young talent in the pipeline, as La Vida pointed out recently in a story about the top five Venezuelan prospects to watch. But seeing the country teetering on the edge makes you wonder whether baseball in Venezuela is also at risk. Edubray Ramos got a second chance. A question to ponder is whether others in the future will even get a first chance.

Featured Image: Federico Parra / AFP / Getty Images

Inset Image: Brian Garfinkel / Getty Images Sport