The baseball dream remained intact. He never turned down an opportunity to pitch, in batting practice or in a game, and he made it into a full-time job in 2021. He estimated he\u2019d make $300 or $400 a day throwing batting practice at academies or workouts, tossing as many as three sessions per day.<\/p>\n
\u201cMonday through Friday, live BPs alone, in a single day it would be about 300 pitches,\u201d Henriquez said. He began working with B&E Baseball Academy in San Pedro de Macoris, working with the unsigned teenagers preparing for professional baseball. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would go and pitch in the morning, and then pitch again in the afternoon,\u201d Henriquez said. \u201cIt started out that way, and they would pay me for each and every time that I went.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/L4FTVVOBYJCMRNEVOSFQIICA5A.jpg\")
Ethan Anderson, left, and Jean Carlos Henriquez prepare to face live batters on the backfields at Ed Smith Stadium. (Paul Mancano\/The Banner)<\/p>\n
The pay was a little better in Santo Domingo, around two hours south of his hometown, San Francisco de Macoris, where he lives with his mother, Ana Mercedez, so he began taking BP gigs there. They paid even better in Boca Chica, he found, so he concentrated his work there. Eventually, he was a contracted batting practice pitcher for the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins \u2014 and all that pitching made Henriquez believe there was life in that brazo de goma<\/p>\n
\u201cI would really use the live BPs, Monday through Friday, to prepare myself for the weekend games because that\u2019s what really counted,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s where the scouts were, watching the games. I\u2019d use that as preparation and, when I\u2019d go pitch, I\u2019d try to show out.\u201d<\/p>\n
A brazo de goma is valuable in the neighborhood games around the Dominican Republic, where a ringer like Henriquez can make all the difference. He built a reputation on those fields, but his next real chance in organized baseball didn\u2019t materialize until last summer with Reales de Santiago, a summer league club that essentially serves as a scout team for the high-profile Dominican Winter League. Their general manager, Francisco Rosario, is a scout for the Orioles, and Henriquez pitched well enough there that the \u00c1guilas Cibae\u00f1as drafted him for their winter ball roster.<\/p>\n
Henriquez, a 32-year-old LIDOM debutant, first took the mound on Oct. 17. His fastball was 98 mph, and his dead-fish splitter missed bats. The Orioles like to pounce early when outliers emerge in winter ball, figuring they\u2019re low-cost, low-risk pitching depth and waiting could welcome competition. Their pro scouting department flagged the video of Henriquez the next day, dug in and signed him after one outing. <\/p>\n