Add The New York Post on Google A Dominican tombstone declares the death of Daury Severino Damaso at 2-years-old due to respiratory illness in 2012.
The only problem? Damaso is very much alive — and until recently was a heralded international baseball prospect going by the name of David Severino in a foiled $2.8 million plot uncovered in an MLB investigation, according to ESPN.
In May, the Cleveland Guardians canceled an agreement with the teen known to them as Severino, believed to be 13 or 14 years old, after discovering he was two years older than reported, according to MLB insider Wilbar Sanchez.
Severino was really Damaso, a fake name cooked up by his trainer, Francisco Nieves, in 2023.
The scam also included a fugazi birth certificate with a birth date of Dec. 20, 2011, plus fake medical and school records for Severino, per ESPN. A later addition to the con was the tombstone, planted in the La Romana municipality of the Dominican Republic.
The Guardians, MLB and Nieves declined comment to ESPN.
A view of the MLB debut patch on the Nike jersey worn by Angel Genao #17 of the Cleveland Guardians. Diamond Images/Getty Images Playing with 12-13 year olds when he should have been playing against those aged 16-17, Severino impressed evaluators.
“You have to have [guts] to do something like this,” John Pereyra, a trainer at Futuro Big Leaguers in the Dominican Republic who worked with Severino, told ESPN in Spanish. “I’ve heard about false birth documents and stuff like that, but to put together what this guy did — that’s movie stuff. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that in the Dominican. In my life, I have never seen anything like that.”
View this post on Instagram Pereyra purchased Severino’s rights for $20,000 in 2023 after being told he was 11, a decision that could now financially imperil his baseball academy with the teen — who could have been eligible for the class of 2027 — suspended from signing with a team on the international market until 2028.
One scout telling ESPN a six-figure payday could now be a $10,000 pittance.
MLB executives told the outlet they knew something was amiss.
“I went to see him and the first thing I thought was, ‘There’s no way this kid is the age he says he is’,” one said, with another adding, “The face was older. You could just tell he was older.”
