July 2, 2018 International Signing Period

[bkeich]

Am crazy or does 7 catchers seem like more than we can actually accommodate. I am guessing some of them would be moved to other positions.

[julio]

Am crazy or does 7 catchers seem like more than we can actually accommodate. I am guessing some of them would be moved to other positions.

There are currently about 11 catchers in extended spring (based on the roster Jim Peyton posted at phuturephillies recently). Two of them are 2018 international signees (Nava and Wang), so between the two groups there are 16 catchers. There are three other guys who are still on short-season stateside rosters, but who are not listed as in XST (Nerluis Martinez, Jesse Wilkening, Juan Mendez), and three additional catchers listed on DSL rosters. A big crowd.

Some of these guys will not be on active rosters when the short season and DSL clubs begin play - some may be held in the Dominican Academy, and some will likely be released.

However, there are five rosters here - Williamsport, GCL East, GCL West, DSL Red, DSL White. These rosters have 35-player active limits, so the Phils could easily assign three catchers to each roster.

[julio]

I just added a line to the table I posted on May 2nd - the Phils signed a 17-year-old Venezuelan, RHP Oswald Medina, yesterday.

[julio]

Two more signings popped up on the mlb.com transactions page:

5/11: Philadelphia Phillies signed free agent RHP Raul Mendoza to a minor league contract.
5/13: Philadelphia Phillies signed free agent RHP Norman Anciani to a minor league contract.

Mendoza is an 18-year-old Dominican. Anciani just turned 17 in late April, is Venezuelan.

I'll add the lines to the table I posted on 5/2.

[Austinfan]

Load up on those pitcher "fliers" - it's the only area where this farm system seems to excel, finding LA pitchers who are under the radar.

[Squire]

The fun continues.

Phillies just traded RHP Tom Eshelman to the Baltimore Orioles for International Allocation money. We've got like 3 weeks to spend the money.

[andyb]

I can't imagine they would do this at this late date for anything other than a large bonus that they did not have the space for.

Eshelman is back to being a credible AAAA arm this year, so he does have a little value.

[phillychuck]

Could be a favor to the O's expecting something else back later. Didn't know we had arms to spare.

Or could be a decent-sized international signing. (I hope I hope...)

[andyb]

I wonder what is up with the Cubans and legal questions. There are still 2 unsigned Cubans in MLB.com's top 5. Yolbert Sanchez is a defensive SS that was actually linked to the O's among others (#5). And the #2 overall prospect is a 25-year-old hard throwing pitcher named Yeiner Cano. 70 fastball though may be more of a relief candidate. I wonder if he is just going to wait a year until he is a free agent.

[bkeich]

Could be a favor to the O's expecting something else back later. Didn't know we had arms to spare.

Or could be a decent-sized international signing. (I hope I hope...)

I wanted to make a joke that they were going to send us one of the players on their major league roster in return, then I looked at their Major League Roster. Ahh, no real credible jokes to even make, they have a total of about 3 players that anyone would want and the cost for them would be outrageous.

They are a terrible team that apparently has been terrible so long they dont even have anyone to trade (credibly) that we could try and get anyone. Mancini would be nice, but I dont see that as even laughably possible. We desperately need relievers and they have a grand total of 1 with an ERA under 5, and I cant really see them moving him (Fry).

Honestly, Eshelman is a guy we think of as a AAAA guy with no real future in the Majors, and is possible that he will be the Orioles opening day starter next year looking at that roster.

[julio]

Meghan Montemurro's tweet:

Meghan Montemurro (M_Montemurro)

...this says "slots." Implies more than one tranche (as I recall, they come in $250k bites?).

[Austinfan]

Do they have to be this year's slots, or can they trade next year's now?

[zambonir]

I think you've asked that before and the answer is still that they have to be this year's.

[LoneStarPhan]

I heard this announced on XM radio this morning and they were joking that Eshelman's family should be very happy that he might be pitching for the O's soon since he should be able to get as many tickets to their games as they can use.

He seemed to fall out of favor with the Phillies and didn't appear that he was going to be a part of the shuffle to the big league club.

[zambonir]

He didn't so much fall out of favor as flop completely. But the Phillies were able to hang onto him without ever putting him on the 40 and at least he's shown some signs of life after going back to AA. It's nice for everybody that this happened. More than the got for Alec Asher.

[Austinfan]

The timing is kind of funny then, unless they have a player lined up, they could have come to an agreement and just moved him in three weeks to get the money next year.

[zambonir]

Either they already know there's a use for it or they think they have a shot at someone. Either way it's something for nothing.

[nycphils]

The timing is kind of funny then, unless they have a player lined up, they could have come to an agreement and just moved him in three weeks to get the money next year.

you are assuming that the O’s value 2019 allocations the same as 2018 allocations - they probably don’t. I do agree that it’s likely they have some use in mind, but it is also possible that they were going to release Eshelman soon and did him a solid in exchange for something rather than absolutely nothing.

[Austinfan]

Baltimore had trouble getting players to sign last year, so they might be willing to trade allocations for legitimate prospects, Eshelman was a 2nd rd pick, he's not that old and seems to have turned it around this season so he has some value.

[julio]

I think it's safe to assume that the Phils made this deal for a reason. This management team doesn't appear to just do things "to do something."

I don't think the Phils were about to release Eshelman, and moved him just to be nice; the trade has left the AAA roster rather short of starting pitching. Maybe let him go after the season - but trading for 2018-19 international pool money has zero value after July 2nd, so trading him now for 'something instead of nothing" doesn't apply. They created a short-term pitching shortage - I have to think they did that because they wanted the international pool money, and that means they intend to use it.