For MLB's Latin American players, recent trends on, off field worrisome

When he joined the Chicago White Sox in 2008, having spent nary a day in the minors, Alexei Ramirez had the advantage of playing for a Latin manager in Ozzie Guillen, who understood the difficult transition the Cuban infielder faced.

If he were breaking in today, Ramirez wouldn’t enjoy that kind of benefit no matter what team he played for, since there are no Latin managers in the majors.

“Having a manager who speaks your language really enhances your career, because you can communicate and understand what you’re trying to do,’’ said Ramirez, now the San Diego Padres’ starting shortstop.

While a handful of U.S.-born managers like Mike Matheny and Pete Mackanin can communicate in Spanish, they’re a distinct minority, and none shares the culture or upbringing of players raised in Latin American countries, let alone the experience of competing at the game’s highest level as a foreigner.

In a sport where nearly 25% of the players hail from Latin countries, the May 16 firing of Cuban-born Fredi Gonzalez by the Atlanta Braves left the big leagues bereft of a Latino calling the shots in the dugout for the first time since 1991. In 2015, Gonzalez was the only one.

“It bothers you,’’ said Chicago Cubs catcher Miguel Montero, an 11-year veteran from Venezuela. “You don’t want to think (there’s any discrimination), but you’re still left with that little resentment of, ‘Why is it? Why don’t they try it?’ I think we have demonstrated enough on the field for them to know we can be good managers.’’

The lack of Latin managers is only one of the issues that have caught the attention of the players association and its large Hispanic constituency, who have also noticed all four players who have been investigated under baseball’s domestic-violence policy – Cubans Aroldis Chapman, Yasiel Puig and Hector Olivera, as well as Dominican Jose Reyes – come from Latin America.

Olivera drew the biggest suspension at 82 games, while Reyes was banished for 52 games and Chapman for 30. Puig was not sanctioned.

Shortly before being reinstated to the New York Yankees’ roster, Chapman said Latin players are targeted by people trying to exploit their sudden wealth and ignorance of the social norms in the USA.

He reiterated those remarks to Paste BN Sports, saying in Spanish: “We arrive in this country without knowing much about it, you get a lot of money, and you’re coming from a place where you don’t have a buck. And there are people here whose main interest is to suck you dry, like mosquitoes.’’

Teaching young players how to shoo away such pests is one of the goals of the Rookie Career Development Program that Major League Baseball and the union run jointly before every season, inviting top prospects to a series of workshops addressing off-the-field subjects. The program is offered in English and Spanish.

But because of the route most Cuban players take into the pros – defecting from the communist island and establishing residency in a third country before signing with a major league team – they don’t get to participate in that orientation camp and often make just a pit stop in the minors.

That has become a bigger concern, with the number of Cuban natives on Opening Day rosters more than tripling from seven in 2010 to 23 this season.

“For most players, you either get drafted or get signed as a free agent and you go through a process, spending time in the minor leagues and getting adjusted to organized baseball,’’ said former big league pitcher Javier Vazquez, who now works for the union. “But a lot of Cubans don’t go through that adaptation because many of them go straight to the majors.’’

Veterans like Montero and the San Francisco Giants’ Angel Pagan believe more programs are needed to help facilitate the adaptation process for foreign players, especially Cubans. Pagan, who said he has brought up his suggestions to the union, harps on the importance of classes in financial management.

“Players who don’t have that mentality, the first thing they’ll do is to buy a really fancy car,’’ Pagan said, “instead of buying a house, which maintains or improves its value.’’

Dan Halem, MLB’s chief legal officer, said baseball is interested in expanding and centralizing cultural-assimilation efforts for foreign players, which are now mostly handled by the individual teams.

MLB has already seen an educational campaign pay off, with the percentage of positive tests for performance-enhancing drugs in the Dominican Summer League shrinking from 3% in 2008 to 0.6% last year.

“Bringing that down has been a function of devoting an enormous amount of resources to education and counseling,’’ Halem said. “Education does pay dividends.’’

A handful of teams – the New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners – are taking that concept a step further by offering prospects at their Dominican academies a continuing-education program so they can finish high school. That’s a given in the U.S., but not so in countries like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, where prospects can turn pro when they’re 16.

Halem said MLB would like that age minimum to go up, and the topic has been discussed as part of the current negotiations with the union for a new collective bargaining agreement.

Montero points to the disparity in age and educational level as one of the inequalities Latin youngsters encounter as they try to make it to the majors.

“Obviously, many of the Latin players don’t have the advantage of coming in with a good education,’’ Montero said. “Many get to the United States around age 16, when the Americans are still in high school, and then several go on to college, to get ready. Many of us don’t have that good fortune.’’

Or, these days, the good fortune to speak with their manager in their native language. Baseball began requiring teams to provide Spanish-language interpreters for the first time this season, but obviously direct communication is preferable.

Even before Gonzalez was fired, baseball was concerned enough about the lack of diversity in managerial and general manager posts that it unveiled a Pipeline Program in January to address that matter. There are two minority managers in the majors – Dusty Baker of the Washington Nationals and Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers – and three minority GMs: Michael Hill of the Miami Marlins, Dave Stewart of the Diamondbacks and Al Avila of the Tigers.

“We would like more diversity among all the front office positions, including the people doing the hiring,’’ Halem said. “We are impressing upon all individuals at clubs that are hiring that they’re going to be held accountable for the diversity of their staff.’’

Mariners third base coach Manny Acta, a Dominican native, said being bilingual proved valuable during his managerial stints with the Nationals and Cleveland Indians, but it was only one of the skills that helped him in the job.

Acta said the scarcity of Latin managers in the majors worries him, mentioning Alex and Joey Cora, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Eduardo Perez as qualified aspirants. But Acta also said candidates would only be defeating themselves if they got discouraged by the lack of opportunities, and he warned that simply having a playing resume and some coaching experience is not enough. With advanced metrics becoming such an integral part of the game, managerial hopefuls need to keep up with the times.

“Our guys need to adjust to the new baseball, the new generation of general managers,’’ said Acta, who has been interviewed for managerial jobs every offseason since the Indians fired him toward the end of the 2012 season. “We have to adjust to those guys because those guys are the ones running the game, and they’re going to be running the game for a while.’’

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