Yerik Perez, an attorney who headed up Major League Baseball’s office in the Dominican Republic, has parted ways with MLB, along with other staffers based in the Caribbean nation.
The news was first reported by Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes.
“We have mutually agreed to the departure of several members of our staff in the Dominican Republic. We appreciate their service and wish them the best,” MLB told ESPN. The other staffers who have left MLB have not been identified.
A lawyer and law professor, Perez has been with MLB since 2009 according to his profile on the professional networking site LinkedIn, when he served as a baseball operations analyst. He later worked for the league’s Department of Investigation, where he investigated the use and possession of performance-enhancing substance and age and identity fraud according to an MLB press release announcing his promotion to run the league’s office in Santo Domingo, the country’s capital, in 2019.
“MLB has been one of the most impactful experiences of my professional and personal life. For me, it’s been more than an organization: it’s been a family, where I’ve always been treated with respect and consideration, for which I will be eternally grateful,” said Pérez in an email sent to ESPN.
In addition to a satellite office in Santo Domingo, MLB also operates the Dominican Summer League, a Rookie-level affiliated minor league that plays a 72-game schedule from June through August. All 30 MLB clubs have built training facilities in the Dominican Republic, and the Major League Baseball Player’s Association, the union which represents both MLB players and players in the MLB-affiliated minor leagues, has an office in the country as well.
Photo: A general view during a spring training game between the Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal on March 7, 2020 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)
