On February 15, the first free agency process of the Dominican Professional Baseball League (Lidom) opens and between that day and March 15, the teams will have the exclusive rights to negotiate with the players from their ranks who will enter the open market.
It is within that 30-day period that Jesús Mejía and the Toros del Este plan to retain a large part of their free agents, primarily first baseman and designated hitter Yamaico Navarro and veteran left-handed pitcher Raúl Valdez.
“When you talk about the subject of free agency, you talk a lot about what you are going to look for, but I think you should think first about what you should retain, because you do nothing looking for people to complement and you lose what is yours, I believe that the priority is to retain, we are already identifying everything we want to retain”, Mejía explained when participating as a guest in the Fanatic’s Podcast, from LISTÍN DIARIO.
Mejía said that it is “difficult for players like Yamaico Navarro and Raúl Valdez to leave the team, unless it is their very personal decision” but that the Toros del Este will do “everything possible” to keep them and others.
Winning is expensive in the League
One of the points made by Mejía in the interview was that as the tournament progresses, the expenses of the Lidom teams become “bigger” and that they even increase when they reach the stage of the Caribbean Series.
“That is a reality, you spend much more when you go to the Round Robin, you spend more when you go to the final and especially when you go to the Caribbean Series, but I do tell you that the six owners work to win, when the owner he does not classify, it does not matter that he has saved x amount of money, they are not happy; Everyone here works to win, it is a reality, you bring more imports in the Round Robin, the hotel and per diem in the Caribbean Series, that is, winning is expensive in the league, ”he said.
Mejía pointed out that the efforts made by Lidom and the six teams with the commercialization and dynamism of the league have helped to correct this economic deficit at some point.
On the new leader of the Bulls
“We are going to look for a winter profile, I am a faithful believer of winter profiles, who know Caribbean baseball, if they know the Dominican league better, but who is a player manager,” he said.
When some names were mentioned, he said that Lino Rivera is always a candidate and he also pointed out Héctor Borg, who already works for the Bulls, as another man who also knows the league.
“I am going to go along that line of people who know the winter league. If you look at the teams that were most successful last year: the Eagles with Leger, who is a man who has known the league closely for many years; Oferman: Nobody knows the league better than him, especially Licey, nobody knows it better than him and Pipe (Urueta) who had a successful year even though we didn’t make it to the final, is a veteran in the league,” he said.
“I believe more in the manager who has a winning culture, who knows how to deal with the players and who has the ability to work as a team with operations,” he said.
Expect dynamic free agency
Mejía also expressed that in his opinion this first free agency process will be “very dynamic” although he knows that it is “very difficult” for certain players to leave their current teams.
“Right now, free agency cannot project how the market will behave, but one prepares in case the market develops slowly or if the market is aggressive and see if one can get certain pieces, but it is a reality that there are players that they are not going to leave their teams, for example, when you think about the case of Licey and its captain (Emilio Bonifacio), that is not real,” said Mejía.
However, despite considering that the process was something necessary to allow development of Lidom to continue, there may be a scenario in which both teams and players are affected in this early stage of free agency.
“Because it can be the case of premium players that raise the value above the normal from one year to the next, by 50% or in a salary that you say, well the league is getting out of control, but there is also the In the event that given this situation there are players who traditionally get a job, they are left out because the teams that go looking for their targets are going to have to balance elsewhere, ”explained the general manager of the Bulls, while adding that to that The fact of negotiating the salaries of the players is also added.
There is no economic disparity in Lidom
One of the great myths within Lidom is the existence of the famous “big markets (Licey, Escogido and Águilas) and “small markets” (Toros, Estrellas and Gigantes), however for Mejía, currently in the league there is no such thing. such economic disparity.
“And I say this because I see how the imported market behaves, you can hire imported products from anywhere, from any league, from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and in recent years the same teams have been behind the same targets. , with the same players, with the same talents and the offers that are made are similar, “said the former manager of the Gigantes del Cibao.
The problem of having a salary cap
Part of the ideas that have been considered to try to prevent the agency from “getting out of control” is to set a salary cap, however, Mejía explained that there are clubs that can offer other things besides salary to their players that perhaps other teams by internal policies “never will”.
“There are other factors, as I explained in the case of Addisson Russell, we (when he was in the Giants) wanted him and even the economic offer from us was higher but he preferred to go to the Bulls for a location issue, he understood that La Romana it was a better destination,” added Mejía.
He took advantage of the moment to say that this could also play a factor in the course of free agency and that for this reason, ideas such as a salary cap during the process could create some disparity between teams when it comes to signing and convincing to “top level” players.
“Each organization is different, everyone is going to have money but there are facilities in some organizations that one gives and others do not and that could make the issue of the salary cap a double-edged sword, because if we can pay the same but an organization has As a policy, offer the players a rented car and another does not and never will, so you could compensate for that by improving the offer, but if there is a salary cap, you already lost”, the general manager stated.
“Nobody knows more about ball than the players”
With 14 years working in baseball operations, Mejía has identified what type of people he needs in each area and that is why he has a person who is in charge of minor league scouting, another who knows how to handle the day-to-day with the players during the season, someone who knows “winter baseball”, that is, “one for each area”.
However, the head of baseball operations for the Bulls exclaimed that “no one knows more about baseball than the players” and that is why he always tries to have someone who has played winter on his team.
“That is real, nobody knows more about ball than the players; For example, Mendy López, who has given us another point of view, there are times when we in operations are burning our brain cells with a topic and Mendy comes and tells us, gentlemen, that’s how it is and that’s it, and when you think of it, yes It is like that,” Mejía said.