The D-backs made a minor international move today, as MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports, signing 18-year-old Mexican right-hander Edgar Martinez for an undisclosed bonus. While the exact amount given to Martinez isn’t known, the signing bonus is required to come in at $300K or less, as the D-backs are barred from signing international amateurs for more than that figure during this signing period and the 2016-17 international signing period as a result of their spending in the 2014-15 signing period. The addition of Martinez could be a sign of things to come, Sanchez writes, as Arizona is making an effort to increase its presence in Mexico. The D-backs introduced three new employees at a press conference in Mexico last month with an eye toward acquiring more Mexican talent in the future. “We naturally want to have a presence down there, not only from a marketing standpoint, but from a scouting perspective,” CEO Derrick Hall explained to Sanchez. “For me, the priority is to find and develop a top talent from Mexico.”
A couple of more notes on some more prominent international free agents…
- Free agent third baseman Luis Yander La O has signed with the Legacy Agency, tweets Sanchez. The 24-year-old, who is exempt from international bonus pools, is exploring the market and preparing for a possible showcase, Sanchez notes. MLB declared La O a free agent a month ago, and Baseball America’s Ben Badler has previously written that La O is nearly MLB-ready. La O doesn’t possess much power but had an extraordinarily low strikeout rate in Cuba (five percent) and is said to be an above-average defender at third base that can handle second base as well.
- Sanchez also reported yesterday that right-hander Vladimir Gutierrez is also being repped by Legacy after signing on with the agency recently (Twitter link). Gutierrez is “on track” to host a showcase sometime next month, Sanchez adds. Gutierrez has been a free agent since last July, but there’s been very little talk about the talented right-hander since that time. When he was declared a free agent, Badler noted that some scouts preferred Gutierrez’s overall package to that of $16MM Dodgers right-hander Yadier Alvarez. The 20-year-old Gutierrez is subject to bonus pools and is currently the top-ranked unsigned amateur on Sanchez’s rankings at MLB.com (No. 2 overall). Sanchez notes that Gutierrez has a low-90s fastball and plus curveball in his scouting report.
Can teams circumvent the bonus cap with a higher minor league salary?
I’d rather give this kid money than David Freese
This La O dude has ZERO power and ZERO extra base potential. Of his 390 hits in Cuba 16.67% of those are of the extra base variety. He does hit for average though, so let’s assume in MLB he gets 200 hits (also easier for math purposes). That means of those 200 hits……. a pathetic 33 would be of the extra base hit variety…… that’s doubles, triples, and home runs COMBINED. 33. The last 4 years in Cuba he’s averaged 70 games played. He is pretty predictable in those 4 years because he pretty much gets 11 or 12 doubles, 2 triples and 2 HRs each year. That’s weaker than Ichiro Suzuki… the singles master. If his numbers translate EXACTLY from Cuba to MLB (never happens, some regression is expected almost always) just multiply his numbers by 2.2 so you get 154 games played, 25 doubles. 4 triples and 4 HRs. That’s 33 extra base hits. For a 3rd baseman that would be pathetic. He has speed and if you project that exactly to MLB and over 154 games played he’d get 30 SBs. He has a .948 fielding percentage at 3B. If you consider that is above average fielding must not be too important in Cuba. He has decent range but he makes a lot of errors. Think Starlin Castro at 3B. I wouldn’t want this guy.
Oh yeah. And while his K-rate is ridiculously low. So is his walk rate. In 1,338 plate appearances in Cuba he has 71 strike outs……. incredible. but he only has 95 walks…. or a rate of about 7%. He has a career .329 BA…… you’d think his OBP has to be over .400, right? It’s .388. While stellar it is solely reliant on how he hits, meaning his OBP only going to be about 50-60 points TOPS higher than his BA. So if he comes here and regresses to, say, a still respectable .270-.280 hitter his OBP will only likely be like .320-.330 TOPS. These are all undesirable numbers for your 3Bman….. or pretty much for any position for that matter. Seems like he’d just be an excellent option off the bench as a defensive replacement or as a pinch runner.
Yeah, what this guy said.
Even better bench player if he could dedicate him self and learn a corner OF spot have to imagine as a 3B his arm isn’t too weak., a more versatile Aoki isn’t too shabby.
Results of low K% and low BB% is a Red Flag because this guy is putting the first few pitches of every AB in play. ML pitchers would soon realize that this guy is a free swinger and they wouldn’t have to throw him strikes to get him out. I don’t see a ML team taking a chance on this guy. Those types of numbers rarely change with age.