January 15, 2025 International Signing Period

[fish]

Sabatini got $80k
https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/elian-pe-17-old-dominican-224116696.html#:~:text=Teams%20have%20signing%20bonus%20pools,agreed%20with%20Pittsburgh%20for%20%2440%2C000.

[andyb]

And the MLB Pipeline article:
https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/phillies-sign-2025-international-prospect-nieves-izaguirre?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

[fish]

Maybe I missed it- but did anyone catch that Dominican “recruiting” coordinator Eddy Toledo won International Scout of the Year in December?
If your next question is “why?”, it turns out it’s really a legacy award for his success before he started working for the Phillies in 2022 as he nears retirement (Julio Rodriguez!).

Dominicano Eddy Toledo elegido 'Scout Internacional del Año'

[owaistabish]

Carlos Severino is $200k per Francys Romero's article.

[julio]

Up to 28 signees now - all of them now appearing on the MILB Transactions Page.

I've updated the list in the top post. Note that I've left the "Nationality" for Ramon Marquez blank; his MILB player page says he was born in Phoenix, AZ. I'm not sure what's going on there. Possibly dual citizenship, raised in "not the United States," regardless of his citizenship. He may be the older brother of Diego Marquez, who is listed as Venezuelan - but that's just a flat-out guess on my part.

Also... the vast majority of these guys are 16 or 17 years old. This is a change from recent past years, where we saw the Phils signing a significantly larger percentage of 18, 19, 20 year old kids.

[fish]

Video for Panama RHP Jorge Mitre

MLB PANAMÁ on Instagram: "El Derecho Jorge Mitre con un recta poderosa que...

[andyb]

Any scouting reports on Geremy Villoria? I am kind of shocked we spent real money ($425K) on a 16-year-old pitcher. Wondering if he is the type of arm that used to get a million dollar bonus.

[fish]

ny scouting reports on Geremy Villoria?

6'2", strong build, "one of the better pitchers from venezuela", up to 93 mph with feel for slider. So, good that he's not throwing really hard yet at that age. Hard to know by that description of his build what kind of projection he has for future strength gains.

[Squire]

Toronto just traded for $2million in allocation money from Cleveland (along with OF Myles Straw) and cash in exchange for a PTBNL (who I presume is a 2024 draft pick of the Blue Jays?)

[owaistabish]

from

Likely to sign Sasaki - and yes, I would think its a 2024 draftee.

Can we sign some of their international players?

[Matt_Winkelman]

2024 draft picks can be traded without being PTBNL (Phillies got one for Tyler Gilbert). More likely (if it is actually a player and not a placeholder for nothing) it is an agreed upon list that either the Guardians will get to watch in Spring before deciding or that will get decided in the next little bit, but getting the trade done needed to be more timely.

[Austinfan]

Still $2.5M left, while they might want to save some money for a late signing, doubtful anyone would be available that requires that kind of money.

Something is up. Hard to imagine they have some secret signings out there that total that much, and they don't want to leave money on the table.

[fish]

And the Padres are signing their guys, so they are out on Sasaski.

Blue Jays were connected to 4 top 100 guys, with DR SS Christopher Polanco being the most interesting- #22 on mlb. His listing is smallish but he looks strong. They say probably an offensive 2B. The other guys are - meh. Including a kid suspended from last years class for age lying.

[zambonir]

The fact that everybody thought LA and SD were the frontrunners and Toronto got further than the New York teams or SF certainly suggested they were a serious contender.

As for the Phillies, they could also trade some slots without it being about Sasaki. Of course there was a time when the Phillies did just leave unspent int'l money on the table, no?

[Matt_Winkelman]

My understanding is that the Phillies have spent to the limit since the hard cap was instituted. They have only traded away money ($250k) once (18-19) but they traded for $2.5M that period so hard to count that as reducing their spending power.

[zambonir]

Didn't they not spend all they could in 2016, coming off the only truly bad year of the rebuild? Either way, ancient history certainly.

[Matt_Winkelman]

For the 16-17 signing period I have them with 56 signing and bonuses for 15 guys bringing them to $215,800 for the remaining 41 players. Now they didn't trade for any money, their biggest bonus was $900,000, and the whole thing was a complete disaster, but they technically gave out money.

[zambonir]

It sounds like the Jays taking most of Straw's contracts off of Cleveland's hands - and possibly the Guardians also just not being able to afford to spend their full international - is the main component of the deal, PTBNL might not be anything special. Though Cleveland did retain some of Straw's salary, so maybe that's what buys them a prospect.

[bkeich]

MLB Trade Rumors reporting that Sasaki decided on the Dodgers

Roki Sasaki To Sign With Dodgers

[zambonir]

Well, The Athletic is who reported it (haha or rather, they noticed it on his Instagram first).

Guess Toronto was just taking its shot. Maybe they'll do something else with it now.

Kind of funny, after all that. Dog bites man.