Alvaro Aristy Faked Age, Identity For $1 Million Bonus

The Padres signed the player known as Aristy out of the Dominican Republic when the international signing period opened on July 2, 2008, believing he was 16. In reality, his name is Jorge Leandro Guzman, and he’s nearly two and a half years older than he said—two weeks away from his 19th birthday when he signed.

Dan Mullin, the vice president of Major League Baseball’s department of investigations, said MLB got a tip about Aristy’s identity in January 2010. Investigators brought Guzman into their offices the next month and confronted him with the evidence, and Guzman admitted his true age and identity. MLB intended to suspend Guzman for a year, but due to an administrative error he did not serve a suspension.
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In another twist to the story, while the real Jorge Guzman was pretending to be Alvaro Aristy, another player tried to use the identity of Jorge Guzman to sign. On Aug. 3, 2006, a shortstop whose real name is Carlos Puello Martinez presented himself using Guzman’s identity and signed with the Indians for $50,000. Martinez failed his age and identity investigation that year.

An interesting and informative piece by BA, about the murky world of age and identity fraud in the D.R.