The Excellence Tournament occurs annually in Puerto Rico, shortly before Major League Baseball’s amateur draft, as a showcase for the young men hoping to get recognized (and paid) by the many talent evaluators on site.
Joe McIlvaine, the legendary scout who helped build the 1986 Mets and later served as their general manager, attended the 2012 tournament as a special assistant to Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik. He watched a skinny right-hander, “One-hundred fifty pounds soaking wet,” McIlvaine recalled late last week, throw a 92-mph fastball. And he wanted to learn more about him.
After the game, Mariners scout Noel Sevilla, who was based in Puerto Rico, first alerted the Mariners to the young man and cultivated a relationship with the pitcher and his family, introduced McIlvaine to Edwin Diaz, who is now the 2019 Mets closer.