MLB suspends prospect over age fraud in Guardians deal

Major League Baseball has suspended a Dominican Republic baseball prospect after an investigation uncovered an elaborate scheme in which the player allegedly faked his own death, adopted his younger brother's identity, and shaved two years off his age to secure a multimillion-dollar agreement with the Cleveland Guardians. The player, whose real name is Daury David Severino Damaso, was 16 years old at the time of the suspension, not 13 or 14 as previously represented.

The fraud, which reportedly began in 2023, involved Severino's former trainer, Francisco Nieves, creating the false identity of "David Severino Damaso," posing as Daury's younger brother. To support the fiction, Nieves allegedly produced a fraudulent birth certificate with a birth date of December 20, 2011, along with falsified medical and school records. The scheme escalated further with the creation of a fake death certificate alleging that Daury had died of a respiratory illness in 2012, and a corresponding tombstone was placed at a gravesite in La Romana, Dominican Republic.

Under the assumed identity, the switch-hitting infielder agreed to a preliminary deal with the Guardians in December 2025 worth...