MLB teams recruiting in Latin America has always been a shaky and potentially illegal matter. However, the Dodgers could be in real trouble this time.
Fangraphs wrote an interesting article on the matter in which they discuss all the different potential laws the Dodgers could have broken and how they could be punished.
The main rundown of the Dodgers situation is that they were receiving players, such as Yasiel Puig, from agents involved with human trafficking operations and cartels. There are various pieces of evidence in which the Dodgers admit to their operations, and admit to trying to cover it up.
One particular piece was a ranking system of all their Latin-American employees in which they were rated on a scale of 1-5, one being a bystander, and five being a criminal. Fangraphs made a striking point about the data-driven Dodgers. They said that “We can all agree that analytics are wonderfully useful. For those who have plans of participating in international organized crime, however, please note that crafting charts to depict one’s level of criminality is unwise.”
As Rockies fans, we take amusement in the fact that the Dodgers are finally having something negative happen to their organization. Players such as Yasiel Puig run us all the wrong way. All we can do is wait for the grand jury’s decision and see how it affects the Dodgers and the rest of the league. This is for certain, this case is going to change the MLB forever.