The Yankees have signed Venezuelan catcher Luis Torrens for $1.3MM, writes Ben Badler of Baseball America. Torrens is ranked as the second-best international prospect in this July 2nd class.
The 16-year-old is a former shortstop and third baseman who converted to catcher in February. Staying behind the plate would obviously enhance Torrens' value but Badler writes that teams have been drawn to him for his bat. The Yankees have a connection with Torrens as he trained with the club's international scouting director Carlos Rios.
Still no word on Tyler Hensley. 🙁
Really hoping he signs soon and his career started. After all he did say that he wanted to get to the bigs by age 21.
Less than other lower ranked prospects.
Maybe in 5 years, the Yankees will trade him to Seattle for Jesus Montero.
Jesus Montero is terrible.
Exactly…
Montero really hasn’t been that good, they haven’t missed out on anything, and noesi has been terrible.
Why is the 2nd best international prospect signing for 1.3 million when the Cuban trio got mega deals? What am I missing here?
The new CBA kicked in today. Teams like the Yankees can’t spend more than $2.9M total on international free agents per year from this day forward. Cuban trio signed beforehand, which is why they got such insane megadeals.
Ah, the obvious. Not sure how I missed that one 😎 Thanks.
So how good is he? High ceiling?
At 16 years old, they all have high ceilings. Very few are chosen because of defensive prowess. When they hit, they stand out. At this age, it’s stiill a crap shoot.
Yea but if 5% of them work out to be stars then it is still a cheaper way to acquire talent than in free agency.
By the way, Carlos Rios is the club’s FORMER director of international scouting.
keep it going yankees
Good signing Yankees! A catcher with power.