January 15, 2021 International Signing Period (was 7/2/20)

[Austinfan]

Unless it's a can't miss guy at the top of the list, I'd rather have 2 of the top 30, since these are always crapshoots.

[bkeich]

Nice to see us start to get some of the top guys. Seems like for years it was just a slew of guys around 100-200 rather than top 30. I guess we are one of the teams that are changing the most from the drop in total number of minor leaguers allowed.

[andyb]

Probably 2 of the top 50, not 30. Bonus sizes and inconsistent rankings imply that. There is really no reason to think our eventual haul will be in the top 20 overall unless we get lucky given the size of our bonus pool.

[julio]

Here's the summary table as of this evening. I don't have birth dates yet, and thus don't have reliable ages.

Player	Position	Signed	Nationality	Bonus
Andrade, Dervin	C	1/15/21	Venezuela
Aparicio, Joset	RHP	1/15/21	Dominican
Cabrera, Deivi	SS	1/15/21	Venezuela
Flores, Yemal	OF	1/15/21	Dominican	1,300,000
Hereaux, Julio	SS	1/15/21	Dominican
Heredia, Raylin	OF	1/15/21	Dominican	300,000
Mejia, Daniel	RHP	1/15/21	Dominican
Mejias, Manuel	C	1/15/21	Venezuela
Melendez, Juan	RHP	1/15/21	Venezuela
Perez, Rickardo	C	1/15/21	Venezuela	1,000,000
Rodriguez, Solardo	C/OF	1/15/21	Venezuela
Rondon, Leonardo	SS	1/15/21	Venezuela	350,000
Rosario, Yemil	SS	1/15/21	Venezuela
Soto, Marco	SS	1/15/21	Venezuela	375,000
			Bonuses Total:	3,325,000
			Pool:	4,732,700
			Remaining:	1,407,700

[Updated 4:00 pm 1/16/21]

Also, mlb and baseball america disagree about the Flores bonus (mlb is reporting 1.4 million, ba is reporting 1.3 million. U-Pik-Em.

[andyb]

And here is the BA tweet/pictures on some of the last few Julio added:
https://twitter.com/BenBadler/status/1350228248928677891

[andyb]

Athletic article on yesterday does not mention the Phillies among the top teams though it really seems driven off of the MLB.com top 30 list. US-based reporters really don't have much of a way to independently evaluate these players. It does seem the Dodgers got a steal with the number 8 prospect Jesus Galiz signing for $400K. The MLB ranking had him going to the Yankees.

In that vein I suppose the $1.2 million bonus to Perez could be seen as a bargain for the number 9 prospect, but him not being ranked by BA or being part of the top pool on the Fangraphs board says that number 9 ranking is probably a little too high.

Which organizations fared best on Day 1 of MLB's international signing period?

[Squire]

The latest additions:

Deivy Cabrera, SS, Venezuela
Joset Aparicio, RHP, Dominican Republic

[andyb]

Some more bonus amounts here:
https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/international/philadelphia-phillies/

Marco Soto - $375K
Leonardo Rondon - $350K
Raylin Heredia - $300K

[julio]

Table (scroll up) is updated.

UPDATE:

Reviewing the Baseball America tracker, I noted that one Manuel Mejias had disappeared from the list of Phils signings. A bit more digging shows that Manuel Mejias (Venezuelan catcher) is now reported as signed by the Cleveland Indians. I've removed him from my table - but I won't be particularly surprised if this is an error.

As of now:

Player	Position	Signed	Nationality	Bonus
Andrade, Dervin	C	1/15/21	Venezuela
Aparicio, Joset	RHP	1/15/21	Dominican
Cabrera, Deivi	SS	1/15/21	Venezuela
Flores, Yemal	OF	1/15/21	Dominican	1,300,000
Hereaux, Julio	SS	1/15/21	Dominican
Heredia, Raylin	OF	1/15/21	Dominican	300,000
Mejia, Daniel	RHP	1/15/21	Dominican
Melendez, Juan	RHP	1/15/21	Venezuela
Perez, Rickardo	C	1/15/21	Venezuela	1,000,000
Rodriguez, Solardo	C/OF	1/15/21	Venezuela
Rondon, Leonardo	SS	1/15/21	Venezuela	350,000
Rosario, Yemil	SS	1/15/21	Venezuela
Soto, Marco	SS	1/15/21	Venezuela	375,000
			Bonuses Total:	3,325,000
			Pool:	4,732,700
			Remaining:	1,407,700

[andyb]

And all these bonus totals need to be taken with a grain of salt until confirmed by MLB (and they sometimes never do that). I wonder if there is a way to add stuff like college or relocation money to the overall total so they can announce slightly larger figures. Not sure we ever figured out the exact bonus for Jhailyn Ortiz as that plus the small Marchan bonus had put us near that year's pool limit though they kept signing smaller dollar bonus players after that.

[andyb]

Both MLB and BA now have the Flores bonus at $1.3 million and Perez at $1.0 million. MLB also now listing all the $300K bonuses so they also have Soto, Rondon, and Heredia here:

Here's where top int'l prospects are signing

[Philsmania]

I don't know if this deserves an "uh-oh", but our $1.3 million guy does not crack the list, unless I am missing it. But, at least we got a top ten guy.

[andyb]

They list the top 30 above in the article so he is there.

[Squire]

Some more additions:

Jorge Garcia, of, Panama
Alfredo Alderete, ss, Panama

[andyb]

It will be interesting to see how many signings they do this year. In past years with 2 DSL teams they would sign 40-60 players. I have no idea if they'll have 2 teams (or really any) teams this year, but if they only sign 20-30 players it is a good sign that things are trending to one DSL team. Eventually I think there will be organizational roster limits to force that (like 180 players in the US and another 40 or 50 total outside of that).

If there are organizational roster limits it would probably be a good thing to push back the international signing age a year while also putting more MLB money into local prospect leagues. The later you sign someone the fewer years they need in your system. Roster limits would hurt a bunch of kids who need those extra years of development.

[fish]

Alfredo Alderete, ss, Panama

Video of Alderete https://youtu.be/WgyB_Jj7Dp0

[Squire]

https://twitter.com/Phillies/status/1356702450804281351

Phillies announce 21 members of their current International Class

[andyb]

South Korean prospect. First in a long time I think.

[julio]

Phils' list of 21 excludes Joset Aparicio, RHP from the Dominican, who is listed as a Phils' signee at Baseball America.

None of these signings has been posted to the mlb.com transactions pages. No player pages exist as yet on either milb.com or BA. Don't have DOB or actual signing dates on most of 'em.

[gmwannabe]

Luis' great grandson??
gm