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Nationals Report: Pitch and catch

Date published: 8/31/2006

Jose Rijo's official title with the Nationals is special assistant to general manager Jim Bowden, but he's really a coach, scout, advisor and front-office executive rolled into one. The gregarious native of the Dominican Republic won 116 games and was the MVP of the 1990 World Series, but he's helped the Nationals gain a foothold in the competitive international talent market with his baseball academy in San Cristobal. He also helped sign 16-year-old shortstop Esmailyn Gonzalez to a $1.4 million signing bonus earlier this summer.

How competitive are the Nationals with other organizations in the Dominican Republic right now?

Let's not forget that we didn't have any money before. We couldn't sign many players or as good players as we wanted to. Now with the new philosophy, we are working right now to better all of that. Right now we spend like three or four hours a day talking about how we can better our system and also make some upgrades in the caliber of player we sign.

Have you noticed any trickle down effect from Gonzalez's signing?

We already sent a message in the Dominican to all the players, the scouts and the buscones [talent scouts] that we can compete with anybody in any way possible by signing the shortstop. Right now we have some players we haven't seen in the past because we did that. They know we got money, they know we want to get better, so now they bring us more players, so that's what we are going to do.

In a perfect world, how would you quickly improve Dominican operations?

We have to sign better players, and to do that we need more money. Before we signed guys to three or four thousand dollars, or five thousand dollars. That wasn't a good approach if you want to get better. The year before last, we didn't spend money. This year is when we really spent it on the shortstop, one player, and that right away will help us out to make us look better. I think we need to go out there with more money to sign some players with some talent.

How long will it take to become a major player in the Dominican?

I say two years at the most. We are really already competing. The Yankees wanted to sign Gonzalez and they can't. I signed him because I got the relationship with the buscone and the kid so that really helps us out, but before I can't even do it because I have the relationship but I didn't have the money. In two years we are going to have this conversation again and you are going to see a list of players that we don't have now that is going to be impressive.

You've recently seen Esmailyn Gonzalez. How's he looking?

He is looking great. He's gotten bigger. He'll be ready. Believe me.

Date published: 8/31/2006