Dodger Prospect Plans an Appeal

The agent for a Dodger prospect, who claims the player was recruited and signed illegally by the club, said that he plans to file an appeal with major league baseball because the Dodgers retained the player’s rights in a recent ruling.

While Commissioner Bud Selig’s office determined rules were broken and then fined the Dodgers an undisclosed sum--believed to be $100,000--it did not declare Venezuelan left-handed pitcher Felix Arellan a free agent, to the chagrin of Beverly Hills-based agent Gus Dominguez.

Dominguez has said that he believes Arellan would command a $3-million signing bonus on the open market and wants his client to be declared a free agent.

“We’re preparing a second grievance because we differ with their findings and ruling,” Dominguez said from his office Wednesday. “We’re not happy, but we’re going to keep fighting because it’s not justified or fair.”

Derrick Hall, Dodger senior vice president, said the team will wait for Dominguez’s appeal.

“He certainly has that right to file,” Hall said. “We’re not going to comment on that. We’re happy the player is still ours and we fully respect the rules of major league baseball. We just want to move on.”

Last season, Arellan went 0-1 with a 6.11 earned-run average in 13 games for rookie-level Great Falls, Mont., which lost in the finals of the Pioneer League playoffs. Arellan, who throws in the mid-90s, walked 30 batters, struck out 24 and threw 12 wild pitches in 17 2/3 innings.

Arellan’s and Dominguez’s claims came to light in June, when both said that the pitcher had a tryout with the Dodgers when he was 14 and signed a contract at 15. The minimum signing age for foreign players is 16.

Arellan’s birth date is listed in the Dodger media guide as Feb. 23, 1981, and his signing date July 2, 1997. However, Arellan and his father, Felix Arellan Sr., have claimed that he signed March 2, 1996, and that the contract was altered later.

Arellan also has claimed that his signing bonus was split and that he received $30,000 through a third party when he was 15, and $87,714 after he turned 16.

There was talk at the time that Arellan worked out when he was 14 at Campo Las Palmas, the Dodgers’ baseball academy in the Dominican Republic, for Ralph Avila, who retired suddenly in October 1999, and Pablo Peguero, who was suspended for a year for his role in signing Adrian Beltre before he was eligible.

Avila, though, appears to be back in good graces with the Dodgers, considering he attended the team’s first day of voluntary winter workouts at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 5. Peguero, meanwhile, is back running the day-to-day operations of Campo Las Palmas, as of Jan. 1.

When the commissioner’s office launched its investigation last summer, it marked the third time in a year that the Dodgers had been accused of illegally scouting and signing Latin-born players.

In June 1999 the Dodgers were fined a reported $200,000 and prohibited from re-signing Cuban players Juan Carlos Diaz and Josue Perez after the team was accused of holding secret tryouts in Cuba and arranging the players’ defections.

In December 1999 the Dodgers were penalized for their handling of Beltre, though he was not declared a free agent. The Dodgers were fined $50,000 after admitting to falsifying documents and were banned from scouting and signing players in the talent-rich Dominican Republic for one year. The ban will be lifted March 27.

Dominguez said Arellan will report to Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla., for spring training. The agent hopes to meet with baseball officials soon to discuss Arellan’s situation.

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Staff writer Jason Reid contributed to this story.