JUNE 16: Baseball America’s Ben Badler has a free scouting report on Alvarez posted, though he notes that because of the 18-year-old’s lack of experience in Cuba’s Serie Nacional, his looks at Alvarez have been somewhat limited. Alvarez once had a lean build but has now filled out his 6’5″ frame and weighs in around 220 pounds. Badler notes that scouts who have seen him more praise his bat control and give him average to above-average power grades, but he’s a bit stiff and has limited flexibility at first base. The whole report is well worth a look and contains some video of Alvarez at the plate as well.
JUNE 15: The Dodgers have agreed to a $2MM bonus with Cuban outfielder/first baseman Yordan Alvarez, MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports on Twitter. Because the Dodgers have already gone over well over their allotted spending pool, they’ll face a 100 percent tax on the 18-year-old Alvarez, meaning the signing will cost them $4MM in total.
Not much information is available publicly on the latest Los Angeles target on the international market. He appeared in Cuba’s Serie Nacional in 2013-14, beginning at just 16 years of age, and compiled a .279/.342/.327 batting line over 239 plate appearances.
Given his age, Alvarez is subject to international signing restrictions. That explains the timing of the move, as today marks the end of the 2015-16 international signing period, and the Dodgers are set to serve a two-year ban on $300K+ bonuses of such players in the 2016-17 class (which begins on July 2 following a two-week quiet period). The organization continues to plunk down big money on prospects out of Latin America and elsewhere, though their ability to do so for the next two years will now be significantly limited due to this past international signing period. They’ll still be able to bid on players that are exempt from bonus pools, of course, including players like Cuban third baseman Yulieski Gurriel, Cuban second baseman Jose Miguel Fernandez and others that are made available via the posting systems from Korea and Japan.
They sign every player that comes from Cuba. Stop spending money on players whose positions are already taken
he’s 18…. seriously it’s nice to have depth…
That’s true but you can have too much depth and just be spending money on players that might not even play for you
…in which case they can trade from that depth for an asset that they do need…
You can also *trade* young players, and as alluded to above, this guy won’t play in MLB for at least three years, if he makes it/isn’t dangled in a swap for someone else.
You can’t really count a player as depth at age 18. He’s just a prospect. Think of him as another draft pick, no more, no less.
Yeah, it’s not depth for your MLB roster in 2016 for sure. But he is organizational/system depth that could be flipped down the line if he doesn’t figure into their OF mix a few years down the line.
Boy this team loves to spend……. Go Giants…..
Says a fan of a team with a top 5 payroll.
Giants actually win titles though.
3……. Dodgers have 5. Go away!
Last being 1988 wow lmao
5 is more than 3 no matter what year it is. Lmao. Go away.
How much did the Giants spend this offseason?
Giants have won 3 out of the last 6 world series
How many has the team with a 300mil payroll win?
Let’s not pretend that the Giants won their WS without spending lots of money.
Also, the Giants completely missed the playoffs in the odd years between rings. If anything, that just goes to show the randomness of baseball: one year you’re out of the playoffs, next year you win it all, and next year you’re out of the playoffs again.
(side note: me saying that the Giants’ success has elements of randomness to it doesn’t mean that I don’t respect them, nor does it mean that I don’t want my team to catch a lucky break here or there. It just is what it is…)
Who has a $300 million payroll?
No one?
The Dodgers payroll is down significantly this season — to $233,836,175. But my guess is that you’ll keep spewing that tired narrative in place of facts.
So is he a real prospect or are they paying forward to a buscerro (so?) for next period player(s)?
Maybe he can teach Puig how to hit?
What they need to do is get a bat in the outfield. Trade Puig, Stripling and if you need another minor leaguer ass another for Braun. The outfield of Joc, Thompson and Braun would be nice
Braun is a cheater and a scumbag. I don’t ever want that guy to don Dodger Blue
That can be said about a ton of players. Some of the most exciting days of baseball I ever witnessed was Sosa vs McGuire and they were clearly cheating but nobody cares because it was so much fun to watch. I don’t agree with cheating at all but he hasn’t tested positive since and you know they are testing him a lot because of his dirty test so if he can help us win a championship id welcome the guy. If not him then we gotta try to get someone else. Maybe even Trumbo. We need power in the outfield badly. Puig isn’t the guy we thought. He has a cannon for an arm but that’s about it. Joc has power but no consistency at all and all we really have is Thompson right now
Dodgers could get Rusney Castillo from Red Sox for prospects. Yet another Cuban outfielder.
deal!
When are the braves signing Kevin Maitain
According to reports, they already have some form of a “handshake” agreement in place; therefore, his signing should be announced pretty early on the 2nd of July, once signings can become official.
Now, even with that being said, it is not 100% guaranteed that Maitan will actually sign with the Braves. Although, even with that being the case, I would still probably put the odds of Maitan being in a Braves uniform, come July 2nd, at somewhere around ~80%…
Furthermore, it has been stated that Atlanta is favored to sign atleast 6 out of the top 25 international prospects. Which includes #1 Kevin Maitan, and of the other guys they are ranked 17th, 18th, 21st, 23rd and 25th, and five out of the six are hitters and then obviously one pitcher.
Also, it remains a very small possibility that they could end up signing the number four prospect in Lazaro Armenteros, but most likely he will be picked up by the Padres.
My favorite player they are expected to sign, other than Maitan, would be Catcher Abrahan Gutierrez.
But still they could really get some interesting bats to pair with the recent signings of young, exciting international players like Yepez, Ventura, Christian Pache, and Derian Cruz.
Those names are Catcher Abrahan Gutierrez, SS Yunior Severino, 3B Yenci Pena, and INF Livan Soto. Then, the RHP they are expected to sign is the 25th overall ranked prospect Livan Contreras.
So, all in all, those are seemingly just the players the Braves are “favored” to sign.
Honestly, they will probably sign those guys, plus possibly another lower hyped prospect or two. The Braves have had some major success finding international prospects that are not as “hyped” as other top prospects, but somehow and someway they typically end up signing an excellent talent or two for fairly cheap year in and year out.
People wonder why the Braves did not draft a whole bunch of position players this year, and this is EXACTLY the reason why they took that approach in the draft.
The Braves have pretty much hinted around all this past year that they will target their position prospects via the international route, so I honestly don’t know why so many Braves “fans” complained and whined ridiculously, FOR NO REASON, when the Braves took three EXTREMELY talented High School arms early on, and then when the Braves mostly targeted talented back of the rotation to possibly high leverage BP candidates throughout the draft..
Although, the position players that the Braves did draft, there very well could be a couple of gems hidden throughout those picks!! Their 2nd CB Round pick C/LF Brett Cumberland, very well could end up rising quickly through the system as a solid, all-around hitter with some good in-game pop. Then, 14th Rounder Robert Osuna could end up becoming a very quality hitter, with some good power potential, although he does play 1B.
Next, and possibly my favorite “mid to late round pick,” was Josh Anthony. As a 3B coming out of JuCo ball, he will probably take just about a level a year path, to the bigs, but his potential, I believe, is absolutely exciting. I mean, I’m not saying he will be the next Nolan Arenado, but I definitely think if all goes well, he could end up being a VERY SOLID ML 3B, that can hit for a solid average and average about 15 HR’s per year.
Then the Braves drafted some wild cards that could play up exceeding their potential in guys like 2B Gabe Howell, 1B/OF Griffin Benson, C Alan Crowley, 2B Nick Shumpert, and OF Jackson Pakorney.
Out of those guys, the picks I like the best are definitely Cumberland, Anthony, Howell, Shumpert, Pakorney, and Osuna, and basically, I like them pretty much in that order. Anthony, I believe, possibly could even surpass the early pick in Cumberland, but that would only be the case if Cumberland moves out from behind the dish and into the OF.
So, even with the Braves’ main focus being primarily on younger, high upside starting pitchers and high leverage pen guys, in the draft, they were still able to snag some pretty solid hitters, or atleast some intriguing hitters that have some potential…Not to mention, two of their first 3 HS pitchers were EXCELLENT hitters themselves…lol
But with that crop of young hitters and starters, PLUS the next highly talented crop of international prospects the Braves will UNDOUBTEDLY now have at LEAST a top 3 farm system in all of major league baseball!!
So, the fans that were ranting and raving about the Braves not drafting a bunch of bats this year, hold your horses and have some patience. Now, if they don’t get atleast another four to five really solid position prospects come the week of July the 2nd, then you can start whining and complaining lol….NOVEL and RANT DONE!!
Well said man, I think most complaints were strictly want instant gratification. The two OFs were rage or top pitchers, I agree the draft went well for the team and the “rebuild” plans are on track.
Nice man. Very well said.
This is my surprised face.
The amount of people that talk about the money the Dodgers spend are dumb, they act like its their money. Who cares what they spend?
It matters to the other organizations that the game is a fair system and clearly it is not at this time. The world should be one draft pool as it is with basketball.
Countries with organized professional baseball leagues would hardly agree that this would be a fair system.
Yeah, this is why everybody hates us.
Not sure what you meant by that, but if an international draft wiped out professional baseball in other countries they would hate us no doubt.
They have taxation and luxury taxes in place for that reason. The teams (Dodgers) that exceed their spending pool pay 100% tax. And going over the 200mil payroll costs the team a luxury tax. Most of That money is distribute to the lower market teams. Hence they are getting money for nothing- basically. The Dodgers shouldn’t be penalized because they are in a big market or decided to create their own television channel once they were able to get out from under the dreaded fox network. And we’re able to secure 8 billion for their tv deal. Not one team wouldn’t be doing that exact thing if they had the opportunity.
If you’re a fan, it is your money. Where else do you think it comes from?
The Los Angeles Dodgers of Cuba made another not so surprising move.
When are they going to sign the 32yr old Cuban third basemen
The problem is Braun is 32 and still has several years left on his deal. Dodgers have been trying to get younger (see trading Kemp DFAing Crawford) so not sure it makes a ton of sense.
Verdugo, Bellinger, and Diaz are also pretty close and can all play OF. Think they’re more likely to make a trade for bullpen pieces, like a Vizcaino or a 3B like Valencia
Diaz is in single A so not that close. Verdugo and Bellinger have a shot to be up some time next year. But they are still in double AA so there is still a little ways to go. And Bellinger can play OF but his best position is 1B.
Link to bbref states that Alvarez is 19.199 years old, not 18.
Note that baseball-reference.com has only a birth year for him, not a month and day. They seem to be calculating his age from the beginning of the baseball season by default. Presumably more complete information has him being born after the middle of June 1997, making him 18.
Alrighty then. So I guess he either just turned 19, or is about to any minute.
Or within the next 5 1/2 months.
Blast from the past