No Action Yet From MLB On Aledmys Diaz



Major League Baseball's investigation into the age of Cuban shortstop Aledmys Diaz is still ongoing, according to multiple sources.

Diaz, who is represented by Jaime Torres, has been presenting himself as a 23-year-old born on Jan. 8, 1990, which would make him exempt from the international bonus pools. However, Baseball America reported last month that there were multiple sources that listed Diaz with a different date of birth from his time in Cuba.

A December 2007 story on the website of Cuba's top league referred to him being born Aug. 1, 1990, which would make him 22 and match several stories from Cuban media outlets in July 2012 that referred to him as 21 when news surfaced that he had left Cuba. Another roster from the 2010 Pan-American games says that Diaz was born in 1991, although the roster only provides the year and no specific date of birth. A third roster from Haarlem Baseball Week in the Netherlands last July lists Diaz with an Aug. 1, 1991 date of birth, which would make him 21.

Diaz has already submitted official documentation to MLB with his Jan. 8, 1990 date of birth and used that date to obtain permanent Mexican residency papers, according to Torres. Now MLB must determine Diaz's true age, whether he's subject to the international bonus pools and whether he's going to face any penalties for potentially submitting false information to the league about his age. 

While it's not clear that Diaz has the talent to merit a team paying him more than its full bonus pool amount for either the 2012-13 or 2013-14 international signing periods, being exempt from the bonus pools would at least provide him with an unrestricted market. Per the Collective Bargaining Agreement, until July 2, 2014, Cuban players who are at least 23 and have played at least three seasons in Serie Nacional (Diaz did that for Villa Clara) are exempt from the international bonus pools. If MLB determines that Diaz presented any false documentation, the league could declare him ineligible to sign for one year.


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I think MLB be better off to allow him to sign now but under the restrictions for his true age… Waiting a year could potentially make him eligible to bypass the signing restrictions although I'm sure MLB would prevent that somehow.


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