"The insular world of Baseball Twitter has been in something of hubbub, in the past week. The cause of the consternation: news from an influential international market/Latin American baseball reporter, Wilber Sánchez, that the Philadelphia Phillies have reportedly reached a $1.8 million "pre-agreement" with a promising young player, emphasis on "young." The player in question, Venezuela's David Basabe, is only 11 years old, and would become the youngest player to ever secure a pre-agreement with a Major League Baseball franchise."
"It's yet another new precedent in the baseball world's predatory hunt for young talent, although MLB is of course hardly the only professional sports league where children are sought out and scouted, effectively forced into lifetimes of performance they're far too young to have actually decided to professionally pursue. The whole dynamic is, in a word, gross-but it's also effectively a lie at the same time."
Philadelphia reportedly reached a $1.8 million pre-agreement with 11-year-old Venezuelan prospect David Basabe, a potential record for the youngest such deal. MLB rules prohibit teams from paying families before players reach eligibility age, so pre-agreements function as non-binding verbal handshake deals without guaranteed payment. International markets increasingly target very young children for scouting, pushing families and children into early specialization and sacrifice. The arrangement can extract childhood time and promise speculative future payouts while offering no legal or financial certainty. The practice raises ethical concerns about predatory recruitment and the welfare of young athletes.
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