SAN DIEGO – A second year into his tenure as general manager of the Padres, A.J. Preller found himself in the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila in 2015 intrigued by a pitcher playing his first season of professional baseball at age 24. Robert Suárez had left his home in Venezuela—not to mention his construction job and semipro team there—to make a little money pitching in the Mexican League for the Saraperos de Saltillo.
“I tried to sign him,” Preller says, “but he was an international free agent and I only had something like $200,000 or $300,000 of international signing money left.”
There was another hitch: the SoftBank Hawks of Japan offered Suárez more money. Much more money.
