They Buy Talent, Not Story

The Dodgers finally secured that 6-foot-2 right-hander with a 93-mph fastball from the Dominican Republic, the pitcher who agreed to terms on a $930,000 bonus in April. Only his name is not Jonathan Corporan, his age is not 17, and his tax bracket is no longer that of a near-millionaire.

After four months of haggling with U.S. Embassy officials in Santo Domingo, the pitcher who claimed to be Corporan fessed up, admitting he is actually 21-year-old Reyes Soto and that Corporan is a younger relative.

Though Soto falsified his age and identity, frustrating team, government and Major League Baseball officials for months, the Dodgers still thought enough of Soto to sign him at the reduced rate of $150,000 Monday.

Soto should obtain a U.S. visa in time to participate in the Dodgers’ Florida instructional league in late September.

“He still possesses a great arm and a lot of talent,” Dodger General Manager Dan Evans said. “We still got the same player we scouted, with the same arm. He just truly is the player to be named later.”

The Dodgers considered legal action against agent Don Nomura, who is advising Corporan/Soto, but after numerous conversations with Nomura and U.S. Embassy officials, team officials are convinced Nomura was unaware of Soto’s true identity. Nomura is out of the country and was unavailable for comment Monday.

The Dodgers were told by officials in baseball’s Santo Domingo office that since the federal government crackdown on immigration documentation in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, there have been 325 cases of false documentation by Dominican players--255 for age discrepancies and 70 for false identities.

Dodger team officials--primarily Jeff Schugel, director of international scouting and Luchy Guerra, senior manager of Latin American operations--spent five weeks in February and March trying to verify Corporan’s age, even hiring a private investigator to assist in the interviews of family members and school officials and to research public records.

They were convinced when Corporan agreed to terms on his initial bonus that he turned 17 on April 21, but Corporan’s application for a visa in mid-May was denied because U.S. Embassy officials in Santo Domingo had suspicions about Corporan’s age and identity.

Schugel took several trips to the Dominican in an attempt to clear up the matter but was unsuccessful until Friday, when he and Pablo Peguero, director of the Dodgers’ Dominican Academy, took Soto to a meeting with embassy officials in Santo Domingo.

“They had pictures and documentation, and the kid finally came clean,” Schugel said. “It was quite an ordeal, but I’m glad we have closure. He’s the same guy we thought was Jonathan Corporan. He just wasn’t Jonathan Corporan.”