A handful of years ago, Jonathan Cruz and other Braves international scouts traveled to Valencia, a city in Venezuela, to visit 4pro International Baseball Academy, which is run by certified player agent Yasser Mendez.
Upon their arrival, Mendez had a surprise for the Braves scouts.
“Hey, open your eyes. I’ve got a new guy,” Mendez said. “Brought him in early. Lay your eyes on him. He’s going to be special.”
His name was Jose Perdomo.
Cruz and others did not go there to see him – they were scouting someone else – but Perdomo made an impression.
He was 11 or 12 years old, and as he faced pitchers much older than him, he showed no fear. Cruz and Co. couldn’t tell at the time if Perdomo would stick at shortstop, but they knew they had found an intriguing talent.
They put an asterisk next to his name.
In the years that followed, they scouted him during a thorough process. And Monday, the Braves signed Perdomo, a shortstop, to a $5 million signing bonus – the largest bonus for an international free agent in Braves history and the richest in this international class.
A Cabrera comparison
Cruz, the Braves’ director of Latin American scouting, knows he has not been in the scouting world long enough to bring a comparison to Miguel Cabrera to the table, but it did not come from him.
After Perdomo completed a showcase in Florida – an event that helped increase his value – one veteran scouting director told Cruz this: Perdomo reminded him of a young Cabrera.
Yes, that Miguel Cabrera. The face of Venezuelan baseball for so long. The future first-ballot Hall of Famer.
This seasoned scouting director said Perdomo reminded him of Miguel Cabrera.
“That stuck with me,” Cruz said.
So Cruz dug into old video of Cabrera. He talked to the scout credited with signing Cabrera.
He came to a conclusion: At the plate, Perdomo did, in fact, look like Cabrera.
Early in the scouting process, scouts compared Perdomo with Gleyber Torres, the Yankees infielder. “Wow, this looks just like Gleyber when he was that age,” Cruz would hear scouts say. Torres was the highest-profile position player in Venezuela during his signing year.
Then Cruz heard the Cabrera comparison. It fit.
The Braves feel confident that Perdomo will pan out.
“I don’t like to use the term ‘lotto tickets,’ but no one can tell me with a straight face that they know what they’re getting into with a 13- and 14-year-old,” Cruz said. “You just don’t know if they’re gonna keep growing, you don’t know if they’re not going to grow. There’s a lot of factors that you have to consider that might go wrong. With that said, the floor on the bat is just incredibly high for his age. He exudes confidence when he’s hitting. We got plenty of information. We try to overmatch the kid all the time, and he showed the ability to adapt and overcome, which is something we haven’t seen in a long time in a kid that young.”
To be clear: Cruz wasn’t saying Perdomo will have a career similar to Cabrera. After all, Cabrera achieved so, so much, and it wouldn’t be fair to place such lofty expectations on Perdomo.
But in terms of how they look when they hit, Cruz sees it as a fair comparison.
“I think that’s the closest real comp to Perdomo,” Cruz said. “I’m comfortable saying that. It’s a big name to compare, future Hall of Famer. But the bat, that’s what Miggy had to look like, and it stuck with me.”
‘It’s a baseball city’
Perdomo has an apartment in Valencia, which is where his academy is located. But he grew up in Maturin, a small town that’s about eight and a half hours, by car, from Valencia.
Cruz said Maturin is “pretty humble.” It’s not a lower-income town, but it’s not a big city. It’s developed, but doesn’t have its own airport.
“But it’s a baseball city,” Cruz said.
And that’s where the Braves first met Perdomo’s family. Their area scout, Junior Colatosti, went to Perdomo’s house for lunch in hopes of gaining a feel for where the kid grew up. As the scouting process unfolded, the Braves had more formal meetings with Perdomo and his family. They talked on the phone a lot.
Of the Braves’ first impressions of Perdomo’s family, Cruz said: “Father was very involved early on. Passionate. He was very supportive of his son. The mother as well. They seemed like they had a very good head on their shoulders. Never once did they mention money, did they mention plans about the future. They were just kind of (an) in-the-moment-type of family. Well-educated, well-mannered. And that’s very important when you’re gonna commit money to a young guy that doesn’t come from money.”
The Braves love Perdomo’s maturity. At his signing ceremony, the 17-year-old – whose baby face tells you he’s still 17 – apparently handled himself well during an interview he did. The Yankees’ Everson Pereira and other big leaguers attended the ceremony, and still, Perdomo stood out.
“Honestly, I think he handled himself better than some of those guys,” Cruz said. “The maturity behind some of his responses, the composure. I was pleasantly surprised.”
A special bat
Perdomo attended countless showcases and events. But one stood out.
In that showcase, Perdomo and Ethan Salas, the top prospect in last year’s international class, competed together. For context, Salas is so advanced that he played in a Padres spring training game last year – at age 16. At the event, Salas and Perdomo faced pitchers who were at Double-A and Triple-A. They saw 97 mph fastballs and hard breaking balls.
“And with our whole process, I think that’s where we were kind of blown away with the adjustments he was making and the performance, and we said, ‘This is the guy we have to go after,’” Cruz said.
A while ago, the Braves measured Perdomo at 5-foot-9, 139 pounds. They now have him at 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds.
The Braves won’t rush Perdomo through their system. They believe he’s mentally prepared to play at a higher level, but he’ll spend the year playing for their Dominican Summer League team. The organization will evaluate him and go from there.
But the Braves are excited with the premier talent they signed.
“We think the hardest thing to teach, if you can teach (it) at all, is to hit,” Cruz said. “And that’s his calling card.”
Perdomo is ready.
“There’s a lot of pressure,” Cruz said. “He feels the pressure, but he’s mature, he’s calm about it.”
Perdomo provides instant value
If there’s something to know about Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, it’s this: He goes for what he wants, and often gets it. He works tirelessly to do so.
It should not comes as a surprise, then, that he was involved in the club’s efforts to sign Perdomo.
“Alex is pretty passionate about international free agents. He’s really good at it as well,” Cruz said. “That $5 million price tag doesn’t come without competition. I think most people could kind of appreciate that. There were other teams involved early, in the mix. And when Alex wants the top guy, he’s gonna get the top guy.”
For a few years, the Braves faced restrictions in the international signing period because of violations committed by former general manager John Coppolella.
Signing Perdomo is a statement: The Braves are back, and they’ll compete at the top tier of the international market as they see fit.
“Alex would say there’s instant value there with a guy (with) such a high profile,” Cruz said. “It’s no surprise that the amount of position players we have in the farm system is thin right now. This is our shot at getting a guy that’s going to impact us in a couple years. We’re not going to put a timetable on him. Everyone has different clocks. But we’re looking at a potential impact player in the bigs, not just an average player.”
