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Inside the Hechavarria signing
Jays' first dip into Cuban talent stream part good fortune, part perseverance

By Bob Elliott, Toronto Sun

Last Updated: April 16, 2010 12:37am
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FacebookDiggDel.icio.usGoogleStumble UponNewsvineRedditTechnoratiFeed MeYahooSimpySquidooSpurlBlogmarksNetvouzScuttleSitejot+ What are these? .In 1981, we asked John McHale where all his players come from?

“You have to think of our talent pool as a large lake, with five rivers of varying strengths running into it,” the Montreal Expos boss explained on a back field one morn in West Palm Beach.

“One river consists of high school talent, another is college. They’re both strong streams, year after year. Some teams have productive tributaries from Latin America, for others it’s a dry creek bed.

“Two other rivers which will eventually open and flow are the Far East and Cuba.”

Finally, the Rogers Centre will have a trickle into its talent pool someone paddling upstream from Cuba, baseball’s last frontier.

In 1993, general manager Pat Gillick attempted to sign third baseman Omar Linares to play only home games, since Canada did not have the same trade embargo the United States had with Cuba.

However, Major League Baseball said no deal.

Three years later, Jays president Paul Beeston and GM Gord Ash tried to sign right-handers Livan Hernandez and Osvaldo Fernandez and failed.

Beeston and current GM Alex Anthopoulos were in on the bidding for lefty Aroldis Chapman in January and dropped out at $24 million US.

Now, Beeston and Anthopoulos, with help from their friends, have negotiated a four-year, $10-million major-league deal with shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria and his agents Bart Hernandez and Barry Praver of Weston, Fla.

A behind-the-scenes look at how a Cuban defector with Mexican residency reported to a Canadian-based team’s extended spring training in Dunedin Fla., on Wednesday:

June 2009: Weston, Fla.

Hernandez receives a call from Hechavarria, who has arrived in Cancun, Mexico.

“I knew his name as soon as he called,” Hernandez said. “I’m aware of all players on the international market. He excelled on the national stage as a junior.”

Righty Reinier Roibal had defected from Cuba earlier and Hernandez was already representing him. Players such as collegians and high schoolers choose agents by word of mouth in major-league clubhouses.

The same is true for Cubans in a new country. If Hernandez was good enough for Roibal, he was good enough for Hechavarria, too.

Roibal and Hechavarria had been teammates in Santiago de Cuba since age nine.

“How did he get there (to Mexico)?” Hernandez repeats. “We don’t know. Didn’t ask.”

June: Weston, Fla.

Through international contacts, Hernandez verifies the phone call from Hechavarria as legit.

Hernandez did research to confirm his age and said it was easy because he had played internationally.

Hechavarria hit .353 (6-for-17) with two doubles and eight RBIs, slugging .471 at the 2007 Americas qualifier in Ixtipa and Zihuatanejo, near the Guatemalan border.

Team USA finished first to earn a berth for the 2008 worlds in Edmonton, while Cuba was second.

Canada, with future No. 1 picks Phillippe Aumont and Brett Lawrie, finished third. Hechavarria had two hits, an RBI and scored four times against Canada, hitting in the No. 2 hole.

July 9: Boston, Mass.

The Boston Red Sox sign shortstop Jose Iglesias to an $8.2-million contract.

Marco Paddy, the Jays’ head of Latin American scouting, had seen Iglesias one day at a workout.

“Boston had a greater comfort level with him than we did,” Anthopoulos said.

Hernandez is confident because “Hechavarria is considered a better hitter and could fetch at least what Iglesias got, or more.”

October: Cancun, Mexico

Hernandez takes the one-hour, 45-minute flight on American Airlines from Miami to Cancun.

He meets Hechavarria for the first time at a Hooter’s ... you know, the place where all $10-million deals begin.

November: Weston, Fla.

Hernandez and his clientele join the firm of Praver-Shapiro Sports Management on U.S. Thanksgiving week.

December: Boca Chica, Dominican

Hernandez makes arrangements to take Hechavarria to the Detroit Tigers academy in Boca Chica, but not before Paddy visits Cancun meeting Hechavarria for the first time.

“They were gracious enough to allow us to work out there,” Hernandez said. “It was the best course, rather than showcases in Mexico.”

Hernandez hires a trainer for Hechavarria, who works out at gym. Other Hernandez clients — from a group of Yuniesky Maya, Sergio Espinosa, Deynis Suárez, Jorge Padrón, Reinier Casanova, Juan Carlos Linares, Rodolfo Fernández, Reinier Orosco and Roibal — arrive. A support system is in place.

Jan. 10, 2010, Boca Chica

The shortstop works out at the Yankees complex.

Jan. 14, 2010, Boca Chica

Hechavarria shows his stuff in front of scouts, GMs and one ownership group —

14 clubs in all, including Paddy — at an open work out.

Jan. 22, New York

MLB sents a letter to teams stating Hechavarria and other Cuban defectors have not been “unblocked” by the Office of Foreign Assets Committee. OFAC has to verify his age, identity and residency, in this case, Mexico.

Feb. 21, Santo Domingo, Dominican.

Anthopoulos and his entourage — assistant Dana Brown, assistant GM Tony LaCava, scouting director Andrew Tinnish and pro scouting director Perry Minasian — take the Miami-Santo Domingo night flight, checking into the Embassy Suites by Hilton, managed by Vancover’s David Meakin, who laments he’s missing the Olympics in his home town.

They were supposed to drive 2 1/2 hours the next day to see Hechavarria work out. Paddy speaks to Hernandez and Praver. Then, Anthopoulos calls, expresses sincere interest and suggests it would be better for the Jays staff to see him at their complex the next day.

Feb. 22,

Juandelio, Dominican

The Jays are on the road at 8 a.m., driving off the highway to San Pedro de Macoris and onto dirt roads for miles before reaching their new complex. This is the Jays’ third in 34 years. The first remained with Epy Guerrero when he left to join the Milwaukee Brewers. The next stayed with George Bell when he was not retained.

“Scouting is about comparison,” Anthopoulos said. “I wanted Dana there because he’d been scouting director (Washington Nationals) for eight years. Andrew knew shortstops eligible for the draft.”

Beeston’s question was “where would Hechavarria go in the draft — if eligible.”

“Marco felt really strongly about Hechavarria, we thought we could set the competition at our complex,” Anthopoulos said.

Antopoulos’ first impression seeing the 5-foot-11 178-pounder?

“His body, he’s wiry, strong, not an ounce of body fat,” Anthopoulos said. “Watching him walk was impressive. When you look at young shortstops you wonder if they are going to get thicker in the lower half which might cause them to lose a step defensively”

Anthopoulos said the prospect was not as thick as Alfonso Soriano, but had a similar build to Julio Lugo, Edgar Rentaria and B.J. Upton, who is taller.

What the Jays entourage saw was an athletic fielder with quick twitch muscles.

Hechavarria runs a 60-yard dash.

“He was 6.4 or 6-5, but he’d been 6.3 before,” Hernandez said.

The right-handed hitter took batting practice with an inside-out swing, hitting the ball the other way.

Anthopoulos said they did not see him swing and miss a pitch.

Hechavarria faced some of harder throwers from the Jays rookie-class Dominican summer league and free-agent international pitchers.

In a simulated game Hechavarria led off every inning. If he got an extra-base, hit or made an out he returned to first and attempted to steal.

The Jays clocked his times out of the batter’s box and his stolen base times.

Team USA beats Canada 5-3 in the round-robin game of the Vancouver Olympics. Americans LaCava, Brown and Minasian tease Canucks Anthopoulos and Tinnish.

“We like to make it exciting,” Tinnish, the forecaster, accurately predicts.

Feb. 23, Santo Domingo

Hechavarria fields ground balls to his backhand and grounders up the middle,

“One play to his backhanded, he dove, made the play, hopped up and threw a seed to first,” Anthopoulos recalls. “Everyone went ‘Wow!’”

Anthopoulos, Brown, LaCava, Tinnish, Minasian and Paddy sit at a square table inside the conference room. The GM instructs everyone to prepare questions to ask the prospect over lunch.

“Teams were concerned with his make up, they wanted knowlegde, we tried to facilitate that.” Hernandez said.

Anthopoulos spoke some Spanish, but since his Spanish “isn’t great” and since outside of Paddy, the rest of the table didn’t understand, switched to English.

To check on his support system, Brown asks Hechavarria the four most influential people in his life.

To check on his self awareness he asks the shortstop to rank his five tools, best to worst.

To check on toughness, he asks if he was ever in a fight as a youngster.

Then Brown asks his favourite question, to see how he handles adversity, he asks what’s the greatest obstacle he’d ever faced? (“I still remember asking Ryan Zimmerman the winter before we drafted him,” Brown says.)

“Leaving my sister and brother at home, defecting from Cuba,” Paddy translates Hechavarria’s words.

Tinnish asks about work ethic, desire, baseball IQ, weight training regiment, cardio and his strengths and weaknesses to see how well Hechavarria understood his abilities.

“Overall,” said Tinnish, “I was very impressed. He’s very professional with a quiet confidence.”

Anthopoulos asked what qualities he liked in the best teammate he ever had, as he had asked Chapman months before, for a sense of his baseball knowledge,

Told that a pecking order based on seniority exisits in Cuba, he asked why Hechavarria, considered the best shortstop from Cuba, why he didn’t play ahead of Eduardo Paret or Luis Navas. And why Iglesias moved to second while Hechavarria stayed at short: “Our coaches thought I offered a little more range,”

“He was complimentary of Chapman and the other Cuban players,” Anthopoulos said. “He seemed respectful, humble, yet very driven and motivated. You never get all the questions answered, but our background work was positive.”

In the two days Hechavarria had roughly 30 at-bats,

“We thought he’d be a top 10 over-all pick in the draft,” said Anthopoulos, whose Jays select 11th.

North Carolina’s Dustin Ackley, second over-all to the Seattle Mariners in 2009, was given a $6 million signing bonus.

Their 13-hour day done, the group gathers with Dominican scout Hilario Soriano for a two-hour diner meeting. Everyone brought notes on the players they’d seen. First baseman Jose Julio Ruiz, other Cuban free agents and Hechavarria.

Anthopoulos asked each scout how much would he pay each free agent.

The group concluded Hechavarria was the one, the best.

Feb. 24, Dunedin

Our Ken Fidlin reports the Jays have looked at both Hechavarria and Ruiz.

March 5, New York

Hechavarria is cleared to sign with a MLB team, “unlocked” by the OFAC. The Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Angels show interest. The New York Post reports that the Yanks are the favourites.

March 6, Weston, Fla.

Hernandez and Praver tell clubs to e-mail bids into their office an effort to separate “contenders from the pretenders.”

“It was a very active market,” Praver says.

The Jays initial offer was for $8 million.

March 11, Largo, Fla.

Anthopoulos takes his wife Cristinia, sister-in-law, Sandra, her children Jake and Hailey to Amici’s Italian Eatery. He’s on the phone to Hernandez and Praver in the car and at the restaurant. Then he calls Beeston, who always says it’s easy to spend money, difficult to spend wisely.

Finally, Anthopoulos gets off the phone to eat.

His wife drops him at Dunedin Stadium so Anthopoulos can pick up his car. He heads upstairs and calls Beeston, who says he’ll talk to Phil Lind, vice-chairman, Rogers Communications and Tony Viner, president and CEO, Rogers Media, to discuss the expenditure.

“You can’t sign players without support of management,” Anthopoulos says.

March 12, Dunedin.

Beeston phones with approval.

The sides agree on the $10 million.

March 13, Dunedin.

While the amount has been agreed upon, the structure has not been settled. In fact, the deal almost falls apart.

One club makes an offer of similar monies over two years, while the Yankees offered a bonus of almost $9 million on a minor-league deal. One team offered $10 million — after the sides agreed.

“The Yankees scouted him several times in big tryout camps and smaller settings in simulated games,” Hernandez says.

With numbers in the ball park, Hechavarria selects opportunity and chooses the Jays, who have Alex Gonzalez playing short on a one-year deal. The Yanks have Derek Jeter and are working on an extension.

Hechavarria will receive a $4-million signing bonus and a $500,000 contract in 2010. Next year he’ll earn $2 million. And in 2012-13 he’ll make $1.75 million.

“We gave everyone an equal chance,” Hernandez said.

March 14, New York.

The New York Post reports Hechavarria will sign a $10-million contract with the Jays, not the Yanks.

April 7, Weston.

Hechavarria’s visa is approved and he’ll soon fly to Tampa.

April 10, Dunedin.

Hechavarria undergoes an eye examination. The Jays doctor says he has 20-8 vision, the best eyesight the doctor has ever seen.

April 13, Rogers Centre.

Jays formally announce the signing.

“We see him a future No. 2 whole hitter,” Anthopoulos says. “If it takes two years to get here, great, if it takes three, great. It’s like signing a college junior.”

Hechavarria turns 21 Thursday.

“He’s the complete package.” Hernandez says. “The No. 1 thing about him is he’s a rare athlete. He had almost zero body fat. He’s like Michael Jordan. He could have been a wide receiver, he’s that type of athlete. He has a plus arm, plus power and an electric body.”

The Iron Curtain is no more, the best from Russia are drafted by the NHL or the NBA.

The only place where the best do not freely compete against the world’s, aside from the World Baseball Classic, are Cuban ball players.

The river has begun to flow, trickling north headed to Lake Ontario and the Rogers Centre.