Josephang Bernhardt

Josephang Raymond Bernhardt
(Joe)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 180 lb.

• Born September 22, 1980 in San Pedro de Macoris, San Pedro de Macoris D.R.

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Josephang Bernhardt made the news when it was discovered that he was underaged when he signed his first pro contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, leading to its being voided but also creating a bidding war among teams for his services, with the Toronto Blue Jays giving him $750,000 once he had truly reached the age of 16 and was eligible to sign. He had used a fake birth certificate to sign the original contract. His story came out around the same time of that of Ricardo Aramboles, who was gifted an even bigger contract after his original one was voided for the same reason. As a result, the Commissioner's office made it incumbent on teams signing young Latin American players to make much more stringent verifications about their signees' age claims.

He came from a famous baseball family in San Pedro de Macoris, the son of minor leaguer Jose Bernhardt and nephew of Juan Bernhardt and Carlos Bernhardt. His original contract with the Devil Rays was for $70,000 - a sizeable sum for a Dominican prospect at the time - and after it was voided, the family hired agent Scott Boras who negotiated what was a record-breaking deal with the Blue Jays. He was a shortstop at the time, but both his size and mediocre fielding skills meant that he was signed for his bat and that he was going to end up as a corner infielder.

He never managed to justify the hype around him. He played seven seasons in the Jays' system, but stalled in Class A with the Dunedin Blue Jays, where he was for four different seasons, including all of his last three as a pro from 2001 to 2003. He regularly hit below the Mendoza Line and failed to develop any power until it was too late: he finally reached double figures in homers in 2002 with 11 in 99 games for Dunedin, but coupled with a .235 average, that was not going to earn him a promotion. He was sidelined by a number of hand and hip injury and was done as a professional ballplayer at 22, after hitting .118 in 9 games for Dunedin in 2003.

Fortunately for him, he had a good head on his shoulders. He used his big bonus wisely and bought a house, and even though he had left school at 15, he returned there to not only earn his high school degree through night classes, but then work his way through law school and obtain his degree in 2016.

Further Reading

• Rachael McDaniel: "Josephang Bernhardt: The Prospect who Changed International Free Agency", Baseball Prospectus, December 22, 2017. [1]