David Ortiz went on Fiebruces Radio Show (Ultra 93.7 FM) this Monday with his most detailed public response yet to the Dominican baseball loan scandal: his company made loans to trainers — buscones — never to players, and he cut ties with Santo Caraballo once Caraballo started using his name for unauthorized business. The problem is that ProPublica had already published documents that undercut that story, including a contract tying Ortiz directly to a 13-year-old prospect’s family and a private jet trip with Caraballo in September 2025 — months after the split Ortiz described.
What Ortiz Said, and Why the Distinction Matters
«I did have a company that made loans to trainers — never to players,» Ortiz said on air. He added that he distanced himself from Caraballo because the man was running other businesses and using Ortiz’s name without authorization.
That distinction carries real weight in the context of «The Dominican Baseball Factory,» the ProPublica investigation published in mid-September 2026 and reported by Gus García-Roberts. The piece documents how up to $500 million of the $1.042 billion paid in signing bonuses to Dominican prospects between 2012 and early 2026 ended up almost immediately in the hands of trainers and lenders. Ortiz is named in that story as an investor in Caraballo’s operation.
Lending money to a trainer is a common, legal practice in the system. The issue is that, according to the documents ProPublica says it holds, that line was already crossed.
The Contract With a 13-Year-Old and the September 2025 Jet
ProPublica found a contract listing Ortiz and Caraballo alongside the parents of a 13-year-old prospect. The document stipulated that both men would provide financial support, food, schooling, housing and training in exchange for 35% of the boy’s signing bonus when he eventually signed with an MLB club. That is not a loan to a trainer — it is a direct agreement with a minor’s family.
On the breakup with Caraballo, Ortiz said on Fiebruces that he walked away «a year and a half or two years ago» due to inappropriate conduct. Yet ProPublica documented that in September 2025 — fewer than twelve months before that interview — the two traveled together on a private jet to Puerto Rico. The timeline doesn’t add up.
To understand the scale of the system these deals operate in: attorney Yaniris Paula, who represents teenage ballplayers in disputes with lenders, estimated that 80% of all MLB bonuses paid to Dominican prospects carry some form of attached loan. More than 6,000 active buscones operate in the Dominican Republic, and some pocket between 35% and 50% of a player’s signing bonus.
The International Draft That Didn’t Happen — and the Audio Messages That Did
The bigger picture stretches well beyond Ortiz. In 2022, MLB and the players’ union came close to agreeing on an international draft that would have drastically reduced these abuses. The pre-agreements that fuel the loan system exploded in part because of the international spending cap introduced in 2017 — between $5.4 million and $8 million per franchise in 2026 — which pushed clubs to lock up talent years in advance. That reform never happened.
ProPublica reports that Ortiz sent audio messages to Dominican players urging them to oppose that international draft at a time when he still had active investments in Caraballo’s business. His attorney denied that his opposition was driven by personal financial interests.
The Fernando Tatis Jr. case against lending firm BLA shows how far these disputes can go: Tatis attempted to sue the company for predatory practices, but in May 2026 a judge rejected his appeal and ordered him to pay $3.74 million in back payments, interest and costs.
Ortiz said on radio what he wanted to say. The documents were already public before he opened the mic.
