Elliott Flashback: Young Osuna scouted Jays at age 15
First published Sept. 22, 2011
By Bob Elliott
DUNEDIN, Fla. _ It’s a scout’s job to find players.
Right-hander Roberto Osuna found Blue Jays international scout Marco Paddy last August.
“He comes to me and says ‘you’re with the Blue Jays right? I know you scouted Luis Heredia, I want you to scout me this year,” said Paddy.
How’s that for confidence?
From a 15-year-old?
Osuna pitched seven innings that August day against Team USA allowing two earned runs and striking out 13 in a win in an under 16 international tournament at Logos de Moreno, Mex.
Paddy was quickly on the phone to general manager Alex Anthopoulos and assistant GM Tony LaCava.
“I told them he was already pitching at a double-A level,” Paddy said. “The savvy and poise he showed was uncommon.”
And so Paddy began on the trail to sign Osuna this summer, the first Mexican player free agent the Jays have ever signed.
“I reminded Alex and those guys of that, I told them you may as well start doing it right,” said Osuna’s agent Oscar Suarez from Phoenix.
While the Jays were in on Heredia, who signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates, they chose as their key international sign Venezuelan right-hander Adonis Cardona, who received a $2.8 million US signing bonus.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Osuna is at the six-week instructional league at the Bobby Mattick facility with other young bucks learn the ropes doing mundane drills like covering first and running, executing rundowns and running, working on pick-off moves and running.
He’ll pitch next week when the 20-game schedule begins.
Free-agent, teen-agers from Latin American countries like Venezuela and the Dominican Republic are eligible to sign with the highest bidder on July 2 if they are 16 or older that calendar year. Puerto Rican players, like Canadians, are included in the major-league draft.
The best Mexican players sign with their pro clubs in their home country before their 16th birthday as Osuna did with the Mexico City Reds. Against grown men including ex-major leaguers, he appeared in 13 games with a 5.49 ERA, walking 11 and striking out 12.
The Jays gave the Reds, or the Diablos Rojos del Mexico, $1.5 million US for Osuna’s rights.
So much for free trade.
It wasn’t the $4 million payout reported in July, which was later retracted.
How much cash Osuna received is unknown. Usually, teams in the Mexican League keep 75% when contracts are sold to major-league organizations, however it’s not written in stone.
* * *
“It’s a small bit of an small over pay,” said a rival Latin American scout. “If you want to make an impression make a good one and they did. The amount was sensible and not based on an big-time over-pay just to get a player and try to drive home a point.”
* * *
Seated outside the clubhouse in Dunedin Thursday afternon, with Blake Bentley, Paddy’s assistant, serving as translator, Osuna is asked if he’s ever heard of Brett Lawrie.
He shakes his head no.
Bentley pronounces Lawrie’s name differently and the next thing Osuna is doing is pointing to his index finger and bending it awkwardly -- as Lawre did when he broke finger his Wednesday at the Rogers Centre.
Osuna is told how Lawrie is a big deal to youngsters coast to coast in Canada.
Is Osuna the same in Mexico?
“Si,” Osuna says.
“A lot of people know about me,” Bentley translates. “I’ve been in all the newspapers a lot, on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, Sports Center.”
The most impressive thing about instructional league when he phones home to Los Mochis (a “20-hour drive south of Mexico City,”) is how he’s “amazed at the various amounts of coaches, all their different speciliaties.”
Roberto Osuna with the Vancouver Canadians ...
* * *
After Osuna’s win for Mexico, he started and pitched five scoreless against Panama, fanning nine “and he didn’t want to come out of the game,” Paddy recalls.
“You see someone throwing 15 throwing 91-93 MPH, you can’t help but get excited,” Paddy said. “He had a feel for pitching, that was the one determining factor. Plus he’s from a good family tree.”
Osuna’s father, also named Roberto, pitched in the Mexican League, while his uncle Antonio worked as a reliever in the majors for 11 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals and New York Mets from 1995-2005.
Soon after the tourney, Osuna signed with the Mexico City Reds, his country’s New York Yankees.
Paddy returned to see him pitch at the Mexico City Academy. About 10 other teams were there.
Then in March, LaCava and Paddy headed to Arizona to see Osuna face double-A and triple-A players at the Texas Rangers spring complex.
“There must have been 200 people there, guys were there I didn’t even know who were still in the baseball,” Paddy said. “He drew a crowd.”
Again Osuna was clocked at 93 MPH pitching “without pressure, like he was one of the guys on the other team, seven or eight years older. He spun the ball and changed speeds. They bunted and he never panicked.”
* * *
The final time Paddy saw Osuna was in May in Mexico in May at a showcase in Oaxaca, Mex. as Osuna pitched three innings.
The Jays made a decision.
Paddy made an offer to Reds’ Roberto Mansur.
Did Mansur take the Jays first offer?
“They never do, do they?” Paddy asked.
Was he dealing with Mexico’s Scott Boras?
“More like negotiating with Mexico’s Paul Beeston,” Paddy said. “Mansur is the president of the team and part owner. He was very pleasant, straight forward.”
The Reds waited for other clubs to bid and decided the Toronto offer was the best, leaving the San Diego Padres, the Rangers and the Yankees in the dust.
* * *
Osuna has thrown two bullpens and one batting practice session since instructional league play began.
Rick Langford describes the right-hander as “very polished.”
“He’s well beyond his years, his demeanor on the mound is something, he’s only thrown fastballs and changeups and has a great feel for it,” said pitching co-ordinator Dane Johnson. “It’s shocking to see someone that young pitch like he can. He’s ahead of the other 16-year-olds, the 17s and the 18s ... after that? I don’t want to get ahead of myself.”
A large financial outlay does not guarantee success. The Jays gave third baseman Balbino Fuenmayor $1.2 million in 2006. He finished this season at class-A Vancouver.
* * *
Osuna was born Feb. 7 in 1995 in Juan Jose Rios, Mex.
He grew up in Mexican League clubhouses.
“My father was worked with me on pitching since I was seven,” Osuna said at the picnic table. “I was always in the clubhouse after games.”
Osuna is asked by me -- a veteran of three Caribbean World Series -- why so many major leaguers come from the Dominican, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, and so few come from Mexico.
“In reality there are almost as many,” Osuna said. “Not as many scouts come to Mexico, they go to the Dominican where the academies and complexes are.”
Like slugger Adrian Gonzalez of the Boston Red Sox or Kansas City Royals closer Joakim Soria. After that? Suarez guesses eight Mexican players in all.
Roberto’s father pitched 23 years in summer ball or winter ball “he once threw 10 days in a row, he was a rubber arm,” said Saurez.
Paddy told of going for to a “little Cuban joint” in Tampa with Yankees reliever Luis Ayala and Osuna in July when the Yanks were in to play the Tampa Bay Rays and Osuna was in Florida for his physical.
“Luis said ‘I watched you play Little League, this is as a big a day for me, as it is for you,’” Paddy said. “Tears came to Luis’ eyes, almost. It was like a reunion.”
Reminded of the lunch, Osuna nods and says “we’re like brothers.”
“This is the beginning,” said Paddy, “hopefully it open the doors for others.”
How busy has Jays Latin America scout Marco Paddy been the previous two summers?
Signings:
2010
RHP Adonys Cardona La Sabana, Venz. $2.8 million
3B Gabriel Cenas, Maracaibo, Venz. $700,000
2011
RHP Roberto Osuna, Los Mochis, Mex. $1.5 million paid to Mexico City Reds
OF Jesus Gonzalez, Cumana, Venz. $1.4 million
OF Wilmer Becerra, Bejuma, Venz. $1.3 Million
SS Dawel Lugo, La Catalina, Dominican Republic, $1.3 million