{"id":872274,"date":"2026-08-29T04:45:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T04:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872274\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T04:45:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T04:45:39","slug":"mlb-suspends-dominican-prospect-after-age-fraud-plot-involving-fake-grave-cleveland-guardians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872274\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB suspends Dominican prospect after age-fraud plot involving fake grave | Cleveland Guardians"},"content":{"rendered":"

A once-prized prospect from the Dominican Republic has been suspended by Major League Baseball after a league investigation revealed the player was part of an elaborate plot to portray him \u2060as nearly two years younger than he actually was, ESPN reported<\/a> Friday.<\/p>\n

The age-fraud plot included extreme efforts by the player\u2019s handler such as falsifying school and medical records, faking birth and death certificates \u2060and even staging a gravesite, per \u2060the report.<\/p>\n

A switch-hitting infielder \u200bgoing by the name of David Severino agreed in December to a $2.8m pre-deal with the Cleveland Guardians<\/a>, who reportedly believed the player was 13 or 14 years old. The deal was \u2060set to be finalized in 2029, when Severino was expected to be 17 and eligible to officially sign.<\/p>\n

In reality, per ESPN\u2019s sources, Severino is 16 years old and named Daury David Severino Damaso.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Francisco Nieves, Severino\u2019s \u2060trainer at the time, allegedly created the false identity of David Severino Damaso, posed as Daury\u2019s younger brother. Nieves reportedly created a false death \u200bcertificate for Daury, claiming he died of a respiratory illness \u200ctwo years after he was born, \u200cand even built a fake tombstone that was planted at a gravesite in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

John Pereyra is a trainer who has been \u200cin the business for more than 30 years and currently runs an academy called Futuro Big Leaguers out of Santiago that he says has funneled more than 70 players to MLB<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pereyra said he was told when he first saw Severino work out that he was 11 years old, and he ultimately agreed to pay Nieves $20,000 for Severino\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

Pereyra trained Severino for two years leading up to the agreement with the Guardians but said he knew nothing about the age-fraud plot. He said he had some initial suspicions when \u200che learned Severino\u2019s parents filed his birth certificate late, but this is not an uncommon practice in poor areas. When he learned Severino\u2019s younger brother died young, \u201cI did my own investigation,\u201d he told ESPN, even visiting the \u200bbrother\u2019s supposed grave, which he said eased his concerns.<\/p>\n

He only learned of an issue when he received a message from Nieves in May that MLB was investigating Severino\u2019s deal, which soon thereafter fell apart.<\/p>\n

Pereyra said he doesn\u2019t place blame on Severino or his parents for going along with the plot, citing the desperation to escape poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a kid,\u201d Pereyra said in Spanish, per ESPN, \u201cand you tell him, \u2018Look, your name \u2060is not Daury. If someone asks your name, you say, \u2018David Severino Damaso\u201d \u2013 [he will] do it.\u201c<\/p>\n

Although poverty-stricken areas \u200bin the Dominican Republic and Venezuela have been \u200bripe for age and identity fraud by \u200bplayers desperate for an advantage to make it to the majors, the extent of this scheme reportedly shocked \u200bteam executives, trainers and scouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have \u200cto have [guts] to do \u200bsomething like this,\u201d Pereyra said, \u200bper ESPN. \u201cI\u2019ve heard about false birth documents and stuff like that, but to put together what this guy did \u2013 that\u2019s movie stuff. That\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever seen anything like that in the Dominican. In my life, I have never seen anything like that.\u201c<\/p>\n

It is unclear what prompted MLB to investigate Severino, whose agreement with Cleveland was canceled back in May. The league, the Guardians and Nieves have not commented on the \u200cmatter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A once-prized prospect from the Dominican Republic has been suspended by Major League Baseball after a league investigation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-872274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}