59.05 Jesus and the Strays

[Bob Breum]

“Mr. Breum, I have a Jesús Rodríguez on line one for you. He says he’s the manager of the Oshawa Dodgers.”

“Thanks, Della.”

Breum picked up the phone, “This is Bob Breum.”

“Mr. Breum, this is Jesus Rodriguez in Oshawa. I have two new players here that I was not expecting. No one seems to know how they got here, so I thought I should bring this to your attention.

“Who are they?”

“Hold on, let me get their paperwork. We’ve got a new outfielder named Pedro Hernández. And, um, another outfielder named Petru Marinus. Pedro says we signed him in November.

“We have a language barrier, but I believe that Petru says he signed with Edmonton back in November but then he was told this month to report here instead of to Edmonton. Did we trade for him?

“Also, these two guys are really young. I think Petru is only 16. Shouldn’t they be in our International Complex?

“Jesus, I don’t know the answer, but I’ll find out. You did the right thing by calling me. Thank you for the heads up. As soon as we sort this out, I’ll get back to you. I remember signing Pedro, but we definitely didn’t sign Petru, nor did we trade for him. Don’t get too attached to these guys, Jesus.

Breum dials the Commissioner’s office.

“Hold please. I’ll put you through to Mr. Rectenwald.”

“This is Matt.”

“Hello, Commissioner. It seems that we may have some stray youngsters down in Oshawa.”

Rectenwald chuckles. “Strays? Would one of them be Pedro Hernandez?”

“Yes. I thought he was going back on the market. This has been a crazy offseason for us, as you well know.

“I appreciated that you contacted our office to report the signing when you learned that it was premature. After much back and forth, we’ve decided to allow the signing as well as the others that occurred in that time period, but on the condition that they report directly to Single A.

That’s very good news. However, we have another fellow down in Oshawa that seems lost. He says his name is Petru Marinus, and that he signed with Edmonton.

Marinus is in Oshawa? He’s supposed to be in Mississauga. The Rookie ball Mississauga, not your Mississauga. It’s really confusing having two teams there.

Okay, have your travel secretary call my office and they can work out getting Marinus where he belongs. I appreciate the heads up.

Oh, you know us, Commissioner, we’re all about transparency here in Montreal.

Right. Good luck, Bob.