JUPITER, Fla. – Miami-based agent Felix Taveras has been bringing top prospects from the Dominican Republic to Perfect Game events since 2006, and said he enjoys a pretty high success rate when it comes to getting the prospects to agree to major league contract offers.
That rate of success moved forward again Sunday afternoon.
Right-handed pitcher Fernando Romero from San Juan De la Mag, Dominican Republic, agreed to terms with the Minnesota Twins on Sunday after throwing in two outings for Perfect Game Vegas Gold at the Perfect Game WWBA World Championship at the Roger Dean Complex.
Taveras told Perfect Game that Romero had agreed to a contract offer of $260,000 from the Twins.
“I am very proud to be participating in Perfect Game,” a soft-spoken Romero said through Tavares.
“He pitched Friday and got one outing and he pitched pretty good. His fastball was between 89 and 91 (mph)” Tavares said. “A couple of the scouts wanted to see him again today and he pitched good again, with the same location on his pitches as his last outing and the velocity was the same.”
Tavares said one unnamed team offered Romero a $200,000 contract and another offered $211,000 before the Twins came up with their $260,000 offer.
“I said right then that we had a done deal,” Tavares said. “That is pretty good money for him.”
Romero’s numbers at WWBA World Championship weren’t flashy, but the Twins’ scouts obviously saw something they liked. Romero pitched five innings and gave up five hits while striking out seven, walking three and hitting three batters. He gave up eight earned runs.
Tavares as been bringing prospects to Perfect Game events since 2006 and said he usually manages to get most of them signed, just not as quickly as he was able to do with Romero.
“We wanted to get this done today when all the scouts could see him at the same time,” Tavares said. “We wanted him on the stage of Perfect Game where he would be facing a more advanced hitter than in the Dominican.”
Tavares said Romero will likely sign the contract with a Twins representative when he returns to the Dominican Republic, and then will report the Twins in March.