by Dennis Copson

Created on: July 07, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

San Diego Padres Outsource' Jobs to Foreign Players

Last week the San Diego Padres went absolutely loopy spending an inconceivable amount of money on five foreign players an unprecedented total of 4.8 million dollars in signing bonuses. The real frightening aspect of this deal was that four of these players are 16 years old! Probably not even yet old enough to drive, they can now buy the whole car lot out!

Two of the child athletes are from the Dominican Republic, two are from Venezuela, and one is Australian. The sixteen year old pitcher from Venezuela, Adis Portillo, was guaranteed a two million dollar signing bonus, a Padre record for a foreign amateur and more than they have paid any player drafted for the past four years Americans included. (The poor Australian boy only received $500,000.)

The Padres have been courting these kids, probably not even shaving yet, for a time. Such exorbitant spending can be neither healthy for baseball nor these young kids. It will be years before they can make it to the majors and even that is iffy. So many things can go wrong with kids growing up and developing into adult players. What a gamble when the Padres need desperately to spend now on a team struggling to keep afloat in the National League West where they have resided in or near the basement most of the season. That kind of money could have gotten them a pretty good hitter which is so needed.

The Padres have made their presence known in Latin America with an elaborate $8 million baseball complex opening this spring in the Dominican Republic, an academy of baseball for foreign players - mostly Latin Americans. Their future is apparently hinged on Latin players.

Speaking at a introductory luncheon in May of 2005 at the San Diego Hall of Champions, Sandy Alderson, CEO, gave a hint as to where the Padres were headed when he said "To have a good team, you've got to scout and develop," Alderson said. "That's our equivalent of research and development. We have to develop talent in the U.S. through the draft, but in baseball today 40 percent of the players in professional baseball are from outside the United States. The Padres have done a great job in Mexico, but we need to do a great job across the board. I've expressed this to John and I'm hopeful we can see some improvement in that area. We'll only be as good as our ability to scout and develop."

So we all should have known where the Padres were going for their future players offshore. And offshore they have gone which is

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