In the past half-century, Major League Baseball (MLB) has begun to realize the largely untapped potential present in the Dominican Republic. Baseball is very popular in Latin America but the MLB focused on Cuba, but recent involvement in the Dominican Republic has produced some of the most entertaining current players in the league. However, questions have been raised as to the ethics of the MLB’s recruiting and training practices of young men and concerns have emerged as to the influence of independent corporations on the island. There is some dedicated scholarship to tracking neocolonial influence on the relationship between the MLB and the Dominican Republic over time. From the formation of different teams’ ‘academies’ on the island in the 1970s to the functions of the modern system where arguments are made about the exploitation of young Dominican men pursuing a major league career. An area of the literature in need of expansion is explicit discussion of how economic conditions of the Dominican Republic mixed with the profit motive of the MLB create predatory contracts. My project uses works on the past and present of MLB academies and the history of exploitation in pro-sports and examination of larger corporate influence in Latin America to discuss how the relationship between the Dominican Republic and MLB perpetuates a neocolonial system. Through using modern articles, player autobiographies, and news coverage of players’ contracts, I aim to build on existing literature about how dodging an international draft helps advance the neocolonial relationship that exists between the MLB and the Dominican Republic. Understanding the development of power dynamics as Dominican players develop leadership roles within their respective teams may also give some insight as to the MLB ‘value’ provided.