Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 18, 2009
Rijo to Roll?

After reading the latest from Chico Harlan, my guess is that Jose Rijo is not long for the Nationals organization:

To sign Gonzalez, the Nationals depended on another employee, Jose Rijo, the link between their scouting department and the Dominican streets. Since January 2005, Rijo has served as a special assistant in the Washington front office, operating the team's player development facility in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic.

Rijo fostered a relationship with Gonzalez for at least two years before the signing. To get close with Gonzalez, though, he dealt with Gonzalez's buscone, a street agent named Basilio Vizcaino, who just so happened to be Rijo's childhood friend. During periods before he turned pro, Gonzalez even stayed with Vizcaino, hoping to improve his living conditions and his profile as a prospect. There was never a question about how Gonzalez should repay his debt: Once he earned a signing bonus, Vizcaino would keep 20 percent.

We'll see how this plays out, if Rijo was fooled about this kid's age for two years, there's something wrong. There's a big difference going from 14 to 16 than 18 to 20.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:59 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Yeah, either way Rijo doesn't look good, plus a $1.4M mistake of this kind usually costs somebody their job.

Posted by: obsessivegiantscompulsive at February 19, 2009 11:47 AM
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