Major League Baseball has suspended a highly regarded prospect from the Dominican Republic after investigators reportedly uncovered an elaborate age-fraud scheme involving falsified records, a fabricated death certificate, and even a fake tombstone. According to reports, MLB clubs knew the player as David Severino, a switch-hitting infielder whose apparent age made him one of the more intriguing young players on the international market. The Cleveland Guardians were sufficiently impressed to agree to a $2.8 million pre-deal with him in December.
The Guardians reportedly believed Severino was only 13 or 14 years old and expected him to become eligible to sign in 2029, when he would officially be 17.
A $2.8 Million Deal Starts to Unravel
But the identity presented to teams was allegedly manufactured.
MLB’s investigation determined that Severino’s real name is Daury David Severino Damaso and that he was born on April 2, 2010, making him 16 years old. The discrepancy was particularly significant because the player had been competing against prospects who were only 12 and 13.
According to ESPN, MLB investigators found that former trainer Francisco Nieves constructed a new identity that portrayed Daury as his own younger brother. The player’s parents allegedly approved the arrangement.
The scheme reportedly went well beyond simply changing a date on a birth certificate.
Investigators found records created to support the David Severino identity, including a late-filed birth registration listing his birthday as December 20, 2011. Medical and school records were also allegedly falsified to reinforce the new identity.
A Fake Death Certificate and Tombstone
Then came the most unusual part of the alleged operation.
A fraudulent death certificate was reportedly filed for Daury approximately two years later, stating that he had died from a respiratory illness in May 2012. It was reported that a fake tombstone was also created in the Dominican Republic as part of the effort.
John Pereyra, another trainer who worked with Severino and said he did not know the false identity, described the alleged scheme in unusually stark terms.
“You have to have guts to do something like this,” Pereyra told reporters in Spanish.
“I’ve heard about false birth documents and stuff like that, but to put together what this guy did – that’s movie stuff. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that in the Dominican. In my life, I have never seen anything like that.”
The age difference also changed the context surrounding Severino’s performance as a prospect. While evaluators were watching him establish himself as a top young talent, he was reportedly playing against 12- and 13-year-olds. Based on his actual age, he should instead have been competing with players around 16 and 17 years old in the Dominican Summer League.
MLB Suspension Changes Severino’s Path
The discovery has now altered his path into professional baseball.
Severino otherwise would have been eligible for the 2027 international signing class. Because of MLB’s suspension, however, he will have to wait an additional year before entering the international amateur market and becoming eligible to sign with a club.
The Guardians declined to comment, and MLB was also approached for comment.
What initially appeared to Cleveland to be a multimillion-dollar agreement with an exceptionally young prospect instead unraveled into an investigation involving two identities, altered records and the extraordinary allegation that one identity had effectively been declared dead on paper.
For a sport that has dealt with false ages and birth records among international prospects before, the alleged tombstone took this case into territory that even an experienced Dominican trainer said he had never encountered.
