You can also trade unused money to another team as part of a deal. That option was suspended for a few years but is back now, although not sure any team has done it yet.
2023 International Class
- Thread starter TimScribble
- Start date
You don't, but the slots are good for almost a full year and sometimes players become available later in the period (not often, but occasionally).
The biggest issue is that it would reduce MLB investment in the Dominican. At the present pretty much everyone maintains baseball academies there which is a part of the reason that the island produces so much talent. Puerto Rico used to be in a similar spot, but in 1990 or so players from Puerto Rico became subject to the draft and the number of baseball academies went down. As did the number of good players from the island. So part of the fear is that an international draft will reduce opportunities in places like Venezuela and the DR by reducing MLB investment..
Would that mean that prospects who haven't turned 16 yet but will do so before the end of the signing period could theoretically be snagged by the Sox?
I think so? But also I think any high-profile guys in that category tend to wait for the next full signing period.
If the numbers are right, does that mean Boston potentially is going to lose ~$1.5M that they didn’t spend? Assuming no one else comes available?
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Thank you for this! That makes complete sense. Maybe the compromise is that MLB agrees to fund these academies after a draft? Some sort of guaranteed funding that they obviously can afford might alleviate some of those concerns.
I don't even know how that would work but if the fear is the academies would close, there has to be some sort of way to keep them open.
I'm not clear how the Puerto Rico example informs us about a potential international draft though. The article made it sound like the big problem there was adding the PR kids to the domestic draft, where they were suddenly in competition with high schoolers and college players in programs with far greater resources.
We don't know how much they've spent. The Sox Prospect list only includes the handful of bonus figures that have been reported somewhere. There's a few guys with unreported bonuses that they've hyped up in the press, which would seem to indicate they got more than peanuts.
Bello and Rafaela signed for a combined $38k. Spread that money around on smaller bets.
The Sox still had some IFA cash to burn, and used some of it today, signing Korean high school pitcher Lee Chan-sol (seeing reports it is a 6-figure deal but not clear as of yet). He throws mid-90s and was apparently expected to be a 1st round pick in the upcoming KBO draft, although I can’t find a KBO mock draft to confirm.
They’ve also signed someone named Greider Colina, also a pitcher, but I cannot find any details about him.
They’ve also signed someone named Greider Colina, also a pitcher, but I cannot find any details about him.
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