Major League Baseball has suspended a highly regarded Dominican prospect after an investigation uncovered an elaborate plot to conceal his true age and identity, including a fabricated death certificate and a planted tombstone, according to a report Friday from ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez.
The player, known to scouts and teams as David Severino, is actually Daury David Severino Damaso, born April 2, 2010. He is 16 years old. Under the false identity, he was presented as roughly two years younger — a switch-hitting infielder clubs believed was 13 or 14 when the Cleveland Guardians agreed to a $2.8 million pre-deal with him in December 2025. That agreement was slated to become official in the 2029 international signing period, when the player would have reached the required age.
The Guardians terminated the deal in May after learning he was older than advertised. MLB’s subsequent investigation revealed how far the deception went.
Sources familiar with the probe told ESPN that in 2023, then-trainer Francisco Nieves created a new identity for the player — David Severino Damaso — presented as Daury’s younger brother, with the approval of the player’s parents. A late-filed birth registration listed a Dec. 20, 2011, birthdate. Falsified medical and school records were produced under the new name. From that point, Daury operated as David.
Two years later, a fraudulent death certificate was filed for Daury. It claimed he had died of a respiratory illness on May 5, 2012, at age 2. A fake tombstone was created and placed at a gravesite in La Romana, on the southeastern coast of the Dominican Republic, about 75 miles from Santo Domingo.
The scheme was designed to make the living teenager appear younger and more valuable on the international amateur market, where age and projection drive bonus money. Several evaluators who saw the player later told ESPN they immediately doubted the listed age. One executive said a scout had praised the talent but added that the face and physical maturity did not match a 13- or 14-year-old.
John Pereyra, a longtime trainer who had purchased the player’s rights for $20,000 in 2023 after being told he was 11, later visited the gravesite when questions arose. He told Gonzalez the scale of the effort was unlike anything he had encountered in more than three decades in the Dominican market. “That’s movie stuff,” Pereyra said.
Nieves and the player’s father did not respond to requests for comment in the ESPN report.
Because of his actual birth year, Severino Damaso would have been eligible for the 2027 international class. The suspension delays his entry into the market by an additional year, meaning he cannot sign with an MLB organization until 2028. Any future bonus is expected to be a fraction of the $2.8 million figure once attached to the younger identity. The Guardians face no league discipline; the club is viewed as a victim of the fraud rather than a participant.
Age and identity fraud have long been a problem in baseball’s international amateur market, particularly in the Dominican Republic. Teams have lost deals, and players have been suspended or reclassified, after investigations exposed altered documents. This case stands out for the physical evidence created to support the paper trail — a death certificate and a tombstone for a boy who never died.
The episode is another reminder of the incentives and risks that still shape how talent is packaged and sold before it ever reaches a professional contract. For the Guardians, the $2.8 million commitment is gone. For the player now known by his real name, the path to affiliated baseball is longer and far less lucrative than the one that was constructed for him.
