The Gurriel brothers’ defection from Cuba surprised many pundits, though as Baseball America’s Ben Badler writes, there had been hints over the last year that something was afoot with the duo, particularly Yulieski Gurriel. The elder brother hasn’t always been known for playing hard, but Yulieski had been noticeably hustling more over the past year, perhaps in a deliberate effort to correct this perception in the eyes of MLB scouts. Yulieski also passed on a lucrative offer to play in Japan for the rather curious reason of wanting to rehab a hamstring injury, which raised some eyebrows. Badler notes that in the wake of the Gurriels’ departure, the Dominican government is cracking down on Cuban players in the country, with a couple of prospects already sent back to Cuba and others leaving the Dominican to establish residency in the Bahamas. Cubans still remaining in the Dominican Republic are now playing on well-maintained but secretive baseball diamonds, just adding to the overall clandestine atmosphere.
Here’s more recent news from around the international market…
- The shocking circumstances behind Charles Hairston and Agency39 dropping their representation of Lazaro “Lazarito” Armenteros is still the talk of the international scouting world, and Hairston shared more details with MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez. The mysterious “buscon” (or “investor” as he’s known in Sanchez’s piece) allegedly threatened Hairston ten days ago, and had also been working behind Agency39’s back to negotiate with teams and other agencies to arrange new representation for Armenteros. Agency39 was still working on Lazarito’s behalf as late as noon yesterday.
- Commissioner Rob Manfred reiterated his support for an international talent draft when speaking to reporters (including Jesse Sanchez) on Monday, indicating that changes to the international system will be a significant topic in upcoming collective bargaining negotiations with the players’ union. These talks will be particularly interesting since the desire for altering international signing rules may vary greatly from team to team. “If you ask the teams that have been able to spend internationally, they would be happy with how [the system] is,” Athletics GM David Forst said. “There are also some teams that feel you lose some of the scouting side of it if you have the [international draft]. You lose the ability to unearth players. But with the information that is out there, I’m not sure that happens.”
- Twenty-five teams attended a showcase yesterday for Cuban outfielder Yadiel Hernandez and infielders Yanio Perez and Alejandro Rivero, MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez tweets. Hernandez, who defected last summer, is the most highly-regarded of the trio and is old enough (28) to not be subject to the international pool limits.
- The Dodgers have spent over $200MM on nine Cuban players over the last four years, a major investment that Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register notes that thus far yielded relatively little return. Yasiel Puig has delivered both all-world talent and controversy in his time with the team and Hector Olivera was flipped to the Braves, while Erisbel Arruebarrena and Alex Guerrero are now afterthoughts. “I think like any part of the talent universe there’s going to be mixed results,” said senior baseball operations VP Josh Byrnes, who also noted that the Dodgers’ big investment is still less than it would’ve cost for a similar outlay on free agent talent. The club obviously still expects much from highly-regarded prospects still in the system, including the recently-signed Yaisel Sierra.
Not really fair to blame a guy for getting his ear chewed off my a psychotic teammate, nor is it the players fault the team blocked their Cuban signee’s with well-known former All-Stars.
What happens to undrafted players from Puerto Rico do they just become normal free agents? Would that same thing happen in international draft for undrafted guys?
A lot play college baseball even if they are drafted because of the money potential. But yes they’d be allowed to sign with anyone.
Any team caught dealing with buscones should be banned from any international signings for 5 years.
“Secretive baseball diamonds”. Sounds awesome!
I heard the buscon was secretly negotiating with Agency86 in the Cone of Silence.
Right, chief!
It’s comments like these that remind me that MLBTR really ought to add an upvote feature to their commenting tool.
How would an international draft affect teams’ facilities in foreign countries? If those players discovered in these facilities become subject to an international draft, wouldn’t that deter teams from dedicating as much money as they do to keeping up and active in those regions?
Yes, that is what happened in Puerto Rico teams did not want to spend money developing players that could just be drafted by a different team. I think MLB would keep baseball schools available though or at least I’d hope they would.
Any time I see international and/or draft limits mentioned, I get very tempted to toss off my idea again, which doesn’t seem to have many downsides.
Running the research and development angle in an industry is a major part of success. A team ought to know that this important part of putting together a functioning team won’t be spited away for doing well. That said, a reasonable minimum should be ascertained for the three different wings of development; those being the draft, J2 prospects, and veteran international free agents.
A reasonable minimum ought to be come up with for each of the phases, so GMs and scouting departments know they will continue to thrive into the future, even if they have a stretch of big league success.
For the first two groups, I’d think a *minimum* of $4-$6 million per year makes sense. Each team could know they could get a few intriguing youngsters in the draft, and internationally, every season. I imagine the teams less interested in (spending on) development would prefer the lower numbers, and teams more possessed on developing would like the higher numbers.
Make the penalties for exceeding very harsh. My comment to get the premise rolling would be “lose three draft classes”. No, it wouldn’t be that, but the caveat gets the point across.
For veteran spending, allow each team ‘an amount’ over three years that they can spend, however they want. My guess would be $6-$8 million per annum over a three year window, with each team having the same amount. If you want the next Gurriel brother, you spend $15 million on him. Then, you have three million for the rest of the time.
If owners won’t spend $14-$20 million on incoming talent every year, they should sell to someone who will. Teams could have stipends above the minimums allowed. However, providing a solid minimum should allow teams to find college, prep, and international talent every season, to allow the developmental process to continue.
International Draft would have ZERO effects on teams facilities in Dominican and Venezuela. Those facilities main functions are to provide developmental opportunities for players ALREADY under contract. Each ML team is only allowed a certain number of working Visa slots by the United States government and wouldn’t be able to bring every foreign player they have under contract into the US even if they wanted to. Puerto Rico is a US territory and those players fall under the same draft guidelines as any other player would from the any state inside the US. The International Draft will happen because teams that aren’t major market teams currently can’t outbid the Cubs, Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees, ect, for high profile players currently becoming available.