While still an up-and-coming prospect, Mercedes needed money for his family in the Dominican Republic. So he cut a deal with a group of private equity investors in exchange for a percentage of his future Major League Baseball earnings.
Mercedes talks to correspondent Soledad O’Brien about the arrangement in the next edition of HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” set to debut at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
According to Mercedes, Big League Advance — a speculative investment group led by former pitcher Michael Schwimer — paid him roughly $165,000 for 15% of his lifetime MLB earnings.
“Because those people trusted me,” Mercedes tells O’Brien.