The Red Sox have agreed to sign Dominican right-hander Simon Mercedes to a deal including an $800K bonus, Ben Badler of Baseball America reports. For the agreement to become official, Mercedes must pass MLB’s investigation into his age, identity and visa.
Mercedes formerly presented himself as two years younger and went by the name of Jeffrey Tapia, so he has a history of identity issues. He agreed to a $400K deal with the Giants last offseason, but the agreement disintegrated following an MLB investigation and he was declared ineligible to sign for one year. The ban expired Wednesday, meaning the 20-year-old was again eligible to sign.
The right-hander stands 6’4” and his fastball ranges from 92-96 mph. Scouts say he has an average to above-average breaking ball, Badler reports. He has the potential to start in the Major Leagues.
If they allow this through, then the league should also allow Rafael Depula’s deal to pass.
Isn’t DePaula just waiting for a visa?
not sure, but this sounds like the same exact situation.
Yeah, I just found a post on River Ave Blues about him by Mike Axisa that says DePaula is just waiting for the Gov to okay him for a visa.
The back story does sound the same (they both lied about their name and age, and they were both ineligible to sign for a year because of it), but it sounds like DePaula has actually already been cleared by MLB (but not the government yet) where Mercedes has not (but is expected to?).
Mercedes , no have issues with nobody , he uses his real name. the usa goverment issue his visa , and the other thing is travel tomorrow to Port St lucie if that make the Red Sox fans happy.
Visa first and then mlb will do whatever. Though panguina didnt get approved by mlb and i think he had a visa
According to what I’ve read about it DePaula has already been cleared by MLB and the only thing he needs to make the deal official is a visa, so I assume the same would/could/should apply to Mercedes.
Looks like ur right from what i have been reading you need approval from the mlb before you can get your visa, this might be closer to panguina than depaula
I hope for that price, Mercedes came with 20″ rims.
92-96 MPH is pretty good speed for Mercedes.
this is just the beginning
Sounds good to me.
So he lied about his age and identity twice and signed for more money than was originally offered. Shame on MLB and its clubs. And then they wonder why there is a lot of Latin players who change their age
He has changed his name and age once, not twice, and there is a history of deals like this being approved (see the aforementioned deal the Yankees have with DePaula). Changing his age didn’t help him anyway, it showed that he was older than previously thought (less time to develop and less projected room for development) so he likely got less than he could have if his original listed age was correct (he’d be 18 instead of 20 and would have more time to develop and more room for developmental growth).
his point was that he was only offered a 400k deal last time around, but this time his bonus alone is 800k. Yes, the Red Sox can offer more money than the Giants could, but why weren’t the Red Sox signing him last time around?
Maybe because they had an idea that his name/age weren’t correct, maybe because the Giants signed him before the Sox had made up their mind about him, maybe because the Sox signed 24 international free agents last year and he didn’t fit into their budget.
I don’t know what the specific reason was, but it’s really kind of irrelevant when the original post is implying that Mercedes getting more money after being found out is the reason that they lie about their age, that’s just nonsense.
I’m not saying that he got more money because he lied. But think about it…. does it make sense that he lied, was banned for a year and came back and signed for more money? My point is that this looks really bad, and could encourage young latin players to keep lying about their age. Simple.
The fact that he got caught and had to wait a year to sign should discourage them from lying. The fact that he signed for more money and the fact that he lied about his age are unrelated.
Roberto Hernandez (fausto carmona) lied. And his contract is getting revised because he should get penalized and get less money. And he is a major leaguer. I know it’s a money business but mlb teams shouldn’t reward liars and offer them more money after a suspension like this. And you are right, the punishment should have been greater
I don’t have a problem with a team offering a contract to a player who has served his penalty.
And Carmona is getting his contract re-worked because he had already been signed and in baseball for years before he got caught, it’s not like they could suspend him for a year (they could but it would be as much of a punishment for the team who is presumably innocent); with a player who has yet to sign with a team there is no contract to re-work (I suppose they could have let the Giants re-work the contract but that would have been an even lighter punishment), so they punish them by not letting them sign for a year. But once the penalty is served I have no problem with teams offering him what they think he is worth to sign him.
Again, like I said, if there is anything to complain about it’s the length of the punishment, not a team signing him.
ADD: For what it’s worth Speier wrote an article an hour or so ago about how the previous VP of International Scouting in Boston refused to sign players who had lied about their age, so a year ago Boston would have refused to sign him at all.
I don’t have a problem with a team offering a contract to a player who has served his penalty.
And Carmona is getting his contract re-worked because he had already been signed and in baseball for years before he got caught, it’s not like they could suspend him for a year (they could but it would be as much of a punishment for the team who is presumably innocent); with a player who has yet to sign with a team there is no contract to re-work (I suppose they could have let the Giants re-work the contract but that would have been an even lighter punishment), so they punish them by not letting them sign for a year. But once the penalty is served I have no problem with teams offering him what they think he is worth to sign him.
Again, like I said, if there is anything to complain about it’s the length of the punishment, not a team signing him.
ADD: For what it’s worth Speier wrote an article an hour or so ago about how the previous VP of International Scouting in Boston refused to sign players who had lied about their age, so a year ago Boston would have refused to sign him at all.
If you want to complain about something complain about the relatively weak punishment, not the amount he signed for after serving the required punishment.
cheaply refuse sign guys with problems of identity
Is not the same history
In fact, I am positive that this deal will not be approved by MLB
My people , he didn’t sign with Jeffrey Tapia name , he sign with his real name (Simon Mercedes) the mlb accuse him of use the other name in tryouts (Jeffrey Tapia) but later he said the true about his name and the Giants sign him , then MLB suspended him for use in tryouts the other name , he doesn’t have problems with visa because he uses his real name and the USA issue his visa and he land to USA tomorrow.
This guy dont have any problems , the de paula case is different.