From ‘second guy’ to star
Schoop’s development has taken him a far cry from where he was nine years ago. He was a wiry shortstop and the $90,000 bonus the Orioles gave him was barely a dip in the pool of international free agency. Even though Schoop’s native island was still largely under the radar, his countryman Jurickson Profar received a $1.55 million signing bonus from the Rangers the same year.
“He’s not this big haughty high-profile Latin sign that everybody in baseball in the world knew about,” said Orioles third base coach Bobby Dickerson, who worked at the team’s Dominican academy when Schoop was there. “We are fortunate to have him and his makeup has definitely made him the player he is. And it’s been a rough ride if you think about it. He’s always been the second guy everywhere he’s been. Profar was the guy, the best prospect in baseball. … It’s just awesome that he’s a major league All-Star from coming down from the Dominican academy, sleeping 14 in a room, trying to get his way out of there.”
Adjusting to life away as a teenager was difficult, mainly because he had always been used to being around family, but Schoop can say that his time in the Dominican academy formed a strong foundation for his future success.
“It was tough because I was from Curaçao,” Schoop said. “I am a family guy, I had to be away from my family. I was 16, turning 17 years old. So I had to worry about myself. I had to grow up. I had to become a man already at 16 years old, being all by myself and having to learn how to carry myself. It was tough, but it helped me out a lot. … When I look back, I learned a lot. … I learned to be a man. You have to learn how to be a man first. You’re alone, you have no mom and dad. The brothers you have, they are your teammates. They are your family. You have to learn how to be a man. You have to learn how to do everything for yourself.”
Now that he’s an established big leaguer, he can be close to his family again, to the point that sometimes he has so many family members at his home in Baltimore that four mattresses are spread across the floor so everyone can sleep. Over the past four years,