MLB suspends Dominican prospect after probe finds elaborate age-fraud scheme

Major League Baseball has suspended a Dominican prospect after a league investigation found he was involved in a scheme to portray himself as nearly two years younger than he actually is, ESPN reported on Friday. The probe uncovered falsified documents and staged evidence used to support the false identity.

According to ESPN, the player — a switch-hitting infielder who used the name David Severino — had agreed in December to a $2.8m pre-deal with the Cleveland Guardians, who believed he was 13 or 14. That agreement was to be finalized in 2029 when Severino was expected to be 17 and eligible to sign; in reality, ESPN’s sources say he is 16 and named Daury David Severino Damaso. The investigation found the effort included falsified school and medical records, fake birth and death certificates and a staged gravesite.

ESPN reported that in 2023 trainer Francisco Nieves created the false identity of David Severino Damaso and posed as Daury’s younger brother. Nieves allegedly produced a false death certificate saying Daury died of a respiratory illness two years after he was born and built a fake tombstone that was planted at a gravesite in the Dominican Republic.

Trainer John Pereyra, who said he has been in the business for more than 30 years and runs an academy called Futuro Big Leaguers out of Santiago that he says has funneled more than 70 players to MLB, told ESPN he was initially told Severino was 11 when he first saw him work out. Pereyra said he ultimately agreed to pay Nieves $20,000 for Severino’s rights and trained the player for two years leading up to the Guardians’ pre-deal, but that he knew nothing about the alleged age-fraud plot.

Pereyra said he had some initial suspicions after learning Severino’s parents filed his birth certificate late but considered that practice common in poor areas; he added that visiting the supposed grave eased his concerns. Pereyra described how he first learned there was an issue when he received a message from Nieves in May that MLB was investigating Severino’s deal, which soon thereafter fell apart. On the topic of responsibility, Pereyra said in Spanish, per ESPN, “When you have a kid,” Pereyra said in Spanish, per ESPN, “and you tell him, ‘Look, your name ⁠is not Daury. If someone asks your name, you say, ‘David Severino Damaso” – [he will] do it.“

Pereyra also told ESPN the scale of the scheme astonished people in the game: “You have ‌to have [guts] to do ​something like this,” Pereyra said, ​per ESPN. “I’ve heard about false birth documents and stuff like that, but to put together what this guy did – that’s movie stuff. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that in the Dominican. In my life, I have never seen anything like that.“

It remains unclear what prompted MLB’s investigation; the pre-deal with Cleveland was canceled in May, and the league, the Guardians and Nieves have not commented on the matter.