The news broke this evening that Roberto Hernandez (also known as Fausto Carmona) has agreed to a deal to have the false identity charges against him dropped. In exchange, he will have to complete a work program in his home country of the Dominican Republic.
He’s been on the Indians restricted list since January, when he was arrested on false identity charges. It seems that the best case scenario would be for him to get a judicial pardon to allow him to return to the United States (and presumably take his place in the Indians’ starting rotation). I haven’t been able to find anything online that gives a timeline for the work program. It’s still too early to say how long the work program will take and whether or not he’ll be allowed to return to the U.S. We’ll certainly post updates as we get them, but this certainly seems like a positive development. (If any of our readers have expertise in immigration law, now would be a good time to speak up.)
I don’t know if you remember Joe inglett but I work with him now and we talked last week about Fausto. He was telling me he’s a really good guy and a hard worker but his problems are all in his head. I agree, he seems to be Cy Young for 3 innings and then get hammered. He’s always been that way. i’m hoping getting this off his chest will help him relax and return to 2007 Fausto. I’m also wondering if he’ll legally change his name to Fausto, If not will his jersey say Hernandez or Heredia, and will he change his number to totally start anew? It will be interesting to see how it shakes out but in any case a rotation of masterson, ubaldo, fausto, tomlin and lowe is pretty damn good in my opinion. I’d like to see Slowey/Huff/Mcalister/etc used for depth, and I’m really hoping carrasco can come back strong next year or maybe Sept. I hear he’s ahead of schedule.
thanks for update on fausto….any reports on whether he’s staying shape, throwing, etc?…figure no but thought i’d ask.
Will, ESPN has now lists him as Robert Hernandez, which, as I understand Spanish surnames, is as it should be: http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/6356/fausto-carmona. However, if you do a player search on mlb.com, they still list him as Fausto Carmona. Take your pick.
Stu, I’ve read in a couple of places (including the ESPN player page) that Carmona/Hernandez is following a training program from the Indians.