When Can the Braves Sign International Players Again
Julio Teheran, an international free amanuensis from Republic of colombia. Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
The MLB international signing period begins on July 2, and the Braves could brand a splash past signing some loftier-dollar talent. This, despite beingness constrained past MLB regarding how much they can spend.
Much similar last calendar month'southward draft, MLB has express the amount of coin that teams can spend on players. While the details are a bit dissimilar, the amount of bonus-pool coin allocated to teams uses the same arrangement of reverse gild of the previous flavor'south regular-season winning percentages that the draft uses.
That leaves the Braves with a total of $one,897,900 to spend on international free agents, per Ben Badler ofBaseball America, while a team like the Marlins, who finished with the worst tape in the NL East and the second-worst record in all of baseball, has $4,622,400 to spend.
The Braves have traditionally done very well in regards to signing and developing international prospects. On their current big league squad, Julio Teheran (Colombia) and Luis Avilan (Venezuela) were international signings. Four of their meridian-10 prospects are from the international ranks as well: catcher Christian Bethancourt (Panama), second baseman Jose Peraza (Venezuela), RHP Mauricio Cabrera (Dominican Republic), and outfielder Victor Reyes (Venezuela).
Even with limited bonus-pool money the last few years, the Braves take done a good job of signing players who could have an impact. In 2011, they signed LHP Luis Merejo for just $65,000, and the very next year Baseball America listed Merejo as one of their Ten Breakout International Prospects To Watch.
The last fourth dimension the Braves signed an international player for more than a million dollars was in 2010, when they gave and then-shortstop Edward Salcedo a $ane.six million bonus—the highest bonus for an international role player in social club history.
While Salcedo has slowly worked his way to Triple-A Gwinnett in the Braves pocket-sized league organization, he is not considered a top prospect. His defense forced a move to third base, and information technology may eventually force some other movement to the outfield. At the plate, he'south a free-swinger who doesn't make a lot of contact, and he has never put up the centre-popping numbers that the Braves were hoping for.
It has been rumored by Badler that this year the Braves volition once again give a vii-figure bonus to an international player: Venezuelan third baseman Juan Yepez. Atlanta is idea to have the inside rails on Yepez since his trainer'due south brother is the Braves banana manager of Latin American operations.
The scouting reports on Yepez are mixed, which tin can often exist the case with young international talent. At that place are concerns that his skills at the plate haven't translated into performance in games. There are also questions virtually whether he has the range to stick at tertiary base.
Those uncertainties about Yepez sound a lot similar the imperfect prospect that the Braves concluded upwardly getting in Edward Salcedo. Keep in heed, though, that international prospects are always more of an unknown commodity to both organizations and scouts.
With the Braves having such a close affiliation with the trainer of Juan Yepez, peradventure they know something that other teams exercise not.
Across Yepez, the Braves international signings will nearly likely include players from bottom known baseball countries. While most teams stick to the Dominican Republic and Venezuela to discover their talent, the Braves also mine lesser-known baseball countries like Panama, Colombia and fifty-fifty Nicaragua.
Atlanta also scouts the Caribbean Islands for talent, and it signed three players last yr from Curacao. The Braves best-known international success—Andruw Jones—came from that pocket-sized Caribbean area island.
John Bazemore/Associated Printing
The Long Shot
The Braves final-minute spring-training signing of Ervin Santana apparently put the screws on an already tight payroll. In an interview with Mike Ferrin and former GM Jim Duquette onXM Radio's MLB Network Channel 89 (h/t Alan Carpenter of TomahawkTake.com), Braves GM Frank Wren admitted that the Atlanta forepart office had to enquire ownership to increase payroll in lodge to complete the signing.
This cash-strapped position of the big league ballclub could have the Braves pursuing a different strategy than signing a high-dollar international free agent. Instead of going big into the international marketplace this yr, they may instead seek to accomplish another item on their overall organizational wish list: trading Dan Uggla.
Teams are able to merchandise international signing slots, and over the past few years nosotros've seen a few of these slots become included in trades. (Click hither for an explanation of how these trades work from Baseball America.)
This could exist a perfect opportunity for the Braves to rid themselves of the crushing contract of Dan Uggla. The no-striking second baseman is signed through side by side season, leaving approximately $20 million remaining on his deal.
Atlanta could try to trade a high-dollar international slot (or two) to a team that wants extra slot money to sign a prospect. In return, that squad could have Dan Uggla and virtually of his contract off the Braves' hands, sending a minor prospect back in render.
With Major League Baseball limiting the coin bachelor for teams to employ to sign international players, that money now carries additional value. Substantially, the Braves would exist trading "potential players" in exchange for salary relief.
John Amis/Associated Press
The team acquiring Dan Uggla's contract (and likewise Dan Uggla) would exist taking on salary that they would take spent on international talent in previous years but which is now constrained by MLB rules.
That scenario is a long shot, but with Uggla sitting on the demote taking up 10 percent of the Braves' payroll this season every bit well equally side by side flavour, extraordinary steps may need to exist taken in club to get him off the squad's books.
While the Braves may not desire to sacrifice a large chunk of their limited international bonus-pool money—or the future prospects who could exist signed with that money—if there is an opportunity to unburden their payroll from the Dan Uggla mistake, and so they should accept it.
Only again, that'southward a long shot, and it'due south pure speculation on my part. Atlanta will most likely sign a dozen or so skilful international players this year, several of whom we'll probably be listing on pinnacle-prospect lists in a few years.
Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2103554-predicting-the-braves-top-targets-in-the-2014-international-prospect-market
0 Response to "When Can the Braves Sign International Players Again"
Post a Comment