Signing of Pitcher Is Put on Hold

The Dodgers’ signing of Dominican pitcher Jonathan Corporan to a $930,000 bonus in early April has been put on hold--and could be voided--because of questions surrounding the age of the 6-foot-2 right-hander with a 93-mph fastball.

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.

Dodger General Manager Dan Evans was confident Corporan was 16 when he signed and turned 17 on April 21.

“We’re very comfortable saying this is a 16-year-old kid,” Evans said. “Because of that, we think we got a really good player.”

The commissioner’s office also approved the deal.

But Corporan’s application for a visa to attend the Dodgers’ extended spring training camp in Florida two weeks ago was denied because the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo suspects Corporan is two years older than he claims.

Corporan left Campo Las Palmas, the Dodgers’ academy in Guerra, Dominican Republic, this week to return to his Santo Domingo home and tend to the matter, and the Dodgers hope it will be cleared up in a week or so.

But if Corporan is older than he claims--as many Latin players have been found to be since the federal government crackdown on immigration documentation in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks--the Dodgers will probably want to renegotiate his bonus and sign him for less.

“The bottom line is we’re not bound to the contract if he can’t get a visa,” Schugel said. “We like this kid, even if he’s two or three years older, but his projection level goes down if he is older, and we should be able to get him under some different terms.... If he is a bit older, so be it. We’re confident he’s still going to be a Dodger; we just have to let the process run its course.”

Lou Melendez, baseball’s vice president of international baseball operations, said the Dodgers would retain Corporan’s rights even if he is 19, and that an addendum to the contract could be executed, reflecting Corporan’s actual age.

Don Nomura, Corporan’s agent, said he has no doubts about Corporan’s age.

“The Dodgers did their homework, the commissioner’s office approved it, and now the U.S. consulate is saying this is not who he is, and they have proof,” Nomura said. “I told them to verify that, show me the proof, and they haven’t done it. The Dodgers aren’t happy, we’re not happy, he hasn’t got his bonus. Everything is on hold.”

If there is an age discrepancy, the Dodgers would prefer Corporan be older, not younger, than he claims.

In 2000, the commissioner’s office ruled that third baseman Adrian Beltre was 15 when the Dodgers signed him in 1994. Teams are not allowed to sign Latin American players younger than 16.

The Dodgers were fined $50,000, prohibited from scouting or signing first-year Dominican players for a year and had to suspend operations at their Dominican academy for a year.

“Our staff did an outstanding job doing a lot of homework,” Evans said of the Corporan case, “and if there are any questions, we’ve gone to great lengths to get as many answers as were available to us.”