Yet again Jon Daniels flies under the radar and is attempting to sign a player that might not be eligible to be signed. At around 9 this morning a tweet was tweeted that said:
9:09am: The Rangers signed 17-year-old Dominican outfielder Jairo Beras for $4.5MM, tweets Dionisio Soldevila. For more on Beras, check out this article from Yahoo’s Tim Brown and this brief Twitter scouting report from ESPN’s Keith Law.
Law notes that a lot of team executives are unhappy with the signing, because they were under the impression Beras was not eligible until July 2nd. With a listed birth date of December 25th, 1995, Beras wasn’t thought to be 17 yet, adds Baseball America’s Ben Badler.
From MLBTradeRumors.com. After reading this, I was immeadiately excited beyond belief. Jon Daniels is unmatched at finding the best international talent and bringing it to Arlington, see Alexi Ogando. Not long after, at around 11 AM, another tweet was tweeted:
Teams will be furious if MLB approves the Rangers’ reported contract with Beras, tweets Badler. Still, a source who has spoken with the Rangers told Yahoo’s Jeff Passan the team thinks MLB will approve the signing, because other clubs knew of Beras’ revised age.
Confused as I was, I retained my excitement and expected to see something real soon on ESPN. All I recieved was another tweet that sunk my hopes quite a bit:
MLB was under the impression Beras is 16 and therefore ineligible to be signed, tweets Passan, and will immediately investigate the signing.
Now, my emotions were headed downhill in a very quick fashion. Even though the MLB investigation system has been flawed lately.
The next tweet pretty much stomped my feelings about this good news into the ground:
MLB and competing executives believe Beras is 16, Passan writes. Beras has been presenting himself as a 16-year-old, Ben Badler of Baseball America reports. If he’s using a new date of birth, he could be in trouble beyond MLB, according to Badler.
Dreams Crushed. Hopes gone for this kid. Oh well, JD will always come through. Until next time, Go Rangers.