{"id":497847,"date":"2026-01-16T17:46:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/from-pantoja-to-the-major-leagues-ricky-duran-signs-his-first-professional-contract\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:46:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:46:02","slug":"from-pantoja-to-the-major-leagues-ricky-duran-signs-his-first-professional-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/sports\/baseball\/from-pantoja-to-the-major-leagues-ricky-duran-signs-his-first-professional-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"From Pantoja to the Major Leagues: Ricky Dur\u00e1n signs his first professional contract"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n\n\n<strong>SANTO DOMINGO.\u2013<\/strong> Ricky Dur\u00e1n, shortstop from <strong>Pantoja<\/strong>, signed his <strong>first professional contract<\/strong> with a <strong>Major League Baseball (MLB)<\/strong> organization, fulfilling the dream that began in the streets of his community and that today projects him to professional baseball.\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>You may be interested in<\/strong>8r,: <a href=\"https:\/\/ab.deultimominuto.net\/deportes\/beisbol\/diego-frontado-firma-con-milwaukee-por-us1-6-millones-desde-la-academia-dominicana-hyl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Diego Frontado signs with Milwaukee for US$1.6 million from the Dominican academy HYL<\/a><\/p>\n\n\nDur\u00e1n, cataloged as a <strong>five-tool<\/strong> player, caught the attention of scouts for his combination of defense, arm, speed, batting, and power, attributes that made him one of the most complete prospects in his class.\n\nHis training began at the <strong>Los Girasoles Sports Academy<\/strong>, where he was developed under the direction of <strong>Mart\u00edn Reyes<\/strong>, who highlighted both his natural talent and his discipline and learning ability. During his process, the young shortstop was characterized by his consistency in training and an attitude focused on self-improvement.\n\n&#8220;This achievement is the result of sustained work and comprehensive preparation, both athletic and personal,&#8221; said representatives of <strong>Los Girasoles<\/strong>, when assessing the player&#8217;s growth since his beginnings.\n\nThe international projection and exposure process of Dur\u00e1n was completed at the <strong>Catala Academy<\/strong>, an institution that served as the final platform for his professional signing, formalized through a million-dollar contract with an MLB organization.\n\nThe signing of Ricky Dur\u00e1n represents not only a transcendental step in his sporting career, but also an example of the impact that Dominican academies have on the training of talent for professional baseball.\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SANTO DOMINGO.\u2013 Ricky Dur\u00e1n, shortstop from Pantoja, signed his first professional contract with a Major League Baseball (MLB) organization, fulfilling the dream that began in the streets of his community and that today projects him to professional baseball. You may be interested in8r,: Diego Frontado signs with Milwaukee for US$1.6 million from the Dominican academy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[35481],"tags":[611,40231,40813,41186,40230],"class_list":["post-497847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-baseball","tag-deultimominuto","tag-dominican-republic","tag-major-leagues","tag-theperiodicodelatruth","tag-united-states"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-25vN","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","dum_api":{"author_name":"Redacci\u00f3n De \u00daltimo Minuto","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/cropped-logo-de-ultimo-minuto-96x96.png","categories_name":["Baseball"],"featured_media_url":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}