Cubs Dominican Area Scout Killed in Santo Domingo
Sad news at Sloan Park Saturday night as informatiion was received that long-time Cubs Dominican Republic Area Scout Carlos Reyes was struck and killed by a car in Santo Domingo on Friday.
Reyes was one of four Cubs Dominican Area Scouts (the Cubs also have a Dominican Scouting Coordinator). He was hired by the Cubs about twelve years ago after newly-hired Scouting Director Tim Wilken significantly expanded the Cubs international scouting foot-print (the Cubs previously had one Area Scout covering all of the Dominican Republic).
Reyes signed dozens of Dominican players over the years, including OF Eloy Jimenez, INF Arismendy Alcantara, RHP Jose Rosario, RHP Pedro Araujo, OF Jonathan Sierra, RHP Yunior Perez, INF Luis Diaz, RHP Benjamin Rodriguez, and RHP Luis Ramos.
Per statistics compiled by the World Health Organization in 2016, the Dominican Republic has the highest rate of traffic-related fatalities per 100,000 population of any country in the Americas (Belize is a distant second). Cubs minor leaguers RHP Jose Zapata and OF Kevin Encarnacion (both signed by Reyes) were almost killed (and had their playing careers effectively destroyed) after being involved in a roll-over car crash in the Dominican in January 2014, and another Cubs minor leaguer (not signed by Reyes) -- 16-year old SS Vicente King -- was killed in a motorcycle crash in the Dominican in April 2017, less than two months before he was scheduled to make his pro debut in the DSL.
Every March the Cubs international scouts spend a week at Minor League Camp, and it's always fun to see a player signed by a particular scout walk up to the guy and give him a smile and a hug.
That happened a lot with Carlos Reyes.
He will be missed.
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