Colorado Rockies sign minor league free agent shortstop Shael Mendoza, per reports

As part of our unparalleled reporting here at Purple Row, it's our duty to pass along all the important and not-as-important transactions surrounding the Colorado Rockies, including this: on Saturday (or maybe Friday, according to some sources), the Rockies signed a shortstop named Shael Mendoza.

RockiesRoster.com reported the news on Monday night, and then that's where things get uncertain: Google the Rockies' new infielder, and you get... nothing. Trust me, I did it. And another way. And then another way still. All that Googling takes you to a few pages that are just aggregating the same signing information, like this website covering Major League Baseball from the Czech Republic.

For some reason, the Duluth News Tribune is ALL OVER this news. Of course, USA TODAY saw the transaction come across their wire (and they report the signing as having taken place on Friday). Shael is even already listed on the Rockies' rookie league roster on Wikipedia! So that's something!

But back to that Czech site; that resource claims Mendoza was born October 15, 1996 in the Dominican Republic, making him 19 years old now and, while slightly on the older side for a teen acquisition from the Caribbean, nothing too out of the ordinary there. Of course, I also suspect that's why there's not much Google-able information on him; to the best of my knowledge, SB Nation doesn't run a blog dedicated to amateur teenaged Dominican baseball players. (BUT OH MY GOD, THEY SHOULD.)

It is a little strange that there is no information readily available on Mendoza, though. Like, there should be something, right? Remember back when the Rockies signed Gabriel Corporan? He wasn't a huge prospect by any means, and yet we found several different websites with scouting reports on the third baseman. Scouting reports on teenage talent coming out of the Caribbean are getting better—and more readily available on more players—every single year.

For Mendoza? Nothing.

Hey, this might mean nothing. Obviously, this could also mean Mendoza is not a significant prospect, at least not enough to attract a reporters' attention. That may also mean Shael is short for something, or a nickname that he hadn't been commonly using elsewhere in his baseball world, and thus when it pops up in Google it doesn't return many hits. Or, perhaps it's a misspelling (of what, I'm not sure).

Or—and really, this is probably going to be the most likely explanation—I'm a Google idiot and there's tons of readily available information out there that I just can't find because, well, life's hard for me.

Do you have good Google skills? Have something on Shael? Let us know in the comments. At least for now, it looks like the Rockies added a shortstop to their Dominican Summer League roster; maybe we'll see him stateside one day, and if he's really 19 years old as our Czech friends suggest, maybe we'll see him in Grand Junction sooner rather than later.