For the Indians, Fausto Carmona is a dream come true.
It was Fausto’s idea to approach the Indians about a long-term contract a full year before he had any leverage, said his agent Jorge Brito. Good business sense suggested he wait a year, until he was eligible for arbitration. With another season like 2007 on his resume, Fausto would be a $10 million-a-year pitcher — he would have hit the jackpot.
But, no, he approached the Indians and offered them a home-team discount, a concept that historically gets nothing more than lip service.
“The private life of Fausto, he doesn’t talk too much about,” Brito said. “But this is most important to him — his family.”
Carmona is the youngest of eight children. His parents are poor farmers in the Dominican Republic. Carmona’s right arm is their ticket out of poverty and he was willing to trade millions of dollars later for family security right now.
That has been the Indians’ business plan since the early 1990s and never has it worked out better.
“They are poor people and they are humble people,” said Brito, who also hails from the Dominican Republic. “The human quality of Fausto — his work habits, the person he is — essentially comes from his mom and dad, his growing up in the Domincan Republic. As you say in America, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Brito recalls his first meeting with Carmona in the summer of 2001. Fausto was 17 years old and he was pitching for the Indians instructional league team in Winter Haven, Fla. Brito respresented several other young players in the Indians organization but not Carmona, who did not have an agent.
“I saw him pitch. He really impressed me,” said Brito, 44, who wore the tools briefly with the Colorado Rockies in 1995 and ’96. “I could tell a couple things about his body language that really impressed me. But I didn’t know who Fausto was. I didn’t know what the Indians thought of him. I wanted to do some research on him.
“I told him I would be signing him over the winter. I would visit him and his family in the Dominican Republic. That winter we didn’t get together. So many things were going on. The next time I saw Fausto was in spring training the following year. The first thing I said was, ‘I apologize. Did you sign with anybody?’ He said, ‘No. I didn’t sign with anybody because you said you were going to sign me.’
“I said, ‘Wow. This is somebody special here.’ That showed me what his character is. He is like my brother now.”
Carmona was either naive or uncommonly loyal. Brito prefers to think the latter.
“Unfortunately, loyalty is not something we see a lot of in my part of the business,” said Brito.
Contact Dan Coughlin at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. 

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