There is a joke told by Mexican baseball fans about Espino arriving at the pearly gates of heaven with much less fanfare. St. Peter doesn’t recognize Espino and asks God what he should do. “Don’t be a coward,” God says. “Pitch to him.”

Most American baseball fans wouldn’t recognize Héctor Espino either, even though he was the greatest hitter in Mexican history and by many accounts one of the best hitters of all time. Espino played from 1960 to 1984. He had wrists like the barrels of baseball ...

Pesqueira and David Gonzalez, who also acts as the player’s agent, are now involved in a potentially historic lawsuit against Major League Baseball that could change the signing system for Mexican players and complicate efforts for a worldwide draft. At the crux of the fight is whether Pesqueira was willfully aware that he finalized a contract with the Diablos Rojos, or if he and his father were tricked into signing away his free-agent rights—or if the young player had ever even signed a ...