2027 Padres international amateur signee under investigation for age fraud
Credit: AP Photo
The San Diego Padres international signing plans for 2027 took a hit with unwelcome news regarding a top signee.
Late on the evening of November 2, an MLB investigation’s results revealed that Dominican infielder Cesar Altagracia’s age was not what was initially reported.
The results revealed that Altagracia, who had verbally committed to signing with the Padres organization when he became eligible for amateur free agency in January 2027, is not the 14-year-old he is listed as.
Altagracia, per the report, is five years older than his camp has reported. He is, in fact, 19.
An MLB investigation recently found a top prospect in the Dominican Republic who had verbally agreed to sign with the Padres for approximately $4 million is five years older than previously believed, sources told ESPN.
With @Alden_Gonzalez:https://t.co/stwwlpoBDV
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) November 3, 2024
Per a report from ESPN’s Jorge Castillo and Alden Gonzalez, Altagracia has verbally committed to sign with the Padres for a reported four million dollars.
This number would make his signing bonus one of the highest given out by San Diego since the new international amateur free agent signing laws came into effect, falling just shy of the $4.2 million San Diego gave to Leodalis De Vries in 2024.
This sort of investigation has become more commonplace in the past two to three years and has been seen earlier this year as well. The Mets’ deal with infielder Raymel Ortiz fell through because he was older than reported, although an exact age was never reported. The Red Sox and Astros had a combined five players who lied about their ages in 2024 as well, per reports from Bob Nightengale and a mass report from The Athletic.
Altagracia, 19, will likely serve a one-year suspension before being eligible to sign in 2026, at which time he will be 21 years old.
The length of the suspension is the standard for age fraud per MLB’s international amateur free agency rules. MLB and the Padres organization declined to comment when asked by ESPN, and the Dominican Baseball Federation is actively investigating the murky situation.
A born and raised San Diegan, Diego Garcia is a lifetime Padres fan and self-proclaimed baseball nerd. Diego wrote about baseball on his own site between 2021-22 before joining the East Village Times team in 2024. He also posts baseball content on his YouTube channel “Stat Nerd Baseball”, creating content around trades, hypotheticals, player analyses, the San Diego Padres, and MLB as a whole.
A 2024 graduate of San Diego State, Diego aims to grow as a writer and content creator in the baseball community.