NOVEMBER 21: An announcement could come today, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman adds on Twitter. Notably, he says to expect a “severe” punishment that strips the Braves of “many” recent international signees.
NOVEMBER 20: League action seems to be imminent, as Ben Badler of Baseball America reports that MLB has set meetings for tomorrow with certain Braves prospects. Though specific identities are not known, the report says that “nearly all of the team’s top international signings from 2016” are scheduled to speak with the league’s representatives. You can read Badler’s round-up of that huge signing class at this link with a BA subscription.
NOVEMBER 15: It’s been more than a month since Braves general manager John Coppolella and international scouting director Gordon Blakely resigned amid a league investigation into what has since been reported to be an “unprecedented” level of rules violations on the international market and in the domestic amateur draft. While there’s yet to be any official resolution, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Braves will “definitely” lose some prospects that were signed out of Latin America.
Previous reports have suggested that top 2016-17 signing Kevin Maitan, who received a $4.25MM signing bonus, could be among any potential losses, though it’s not yet clear which prospect(s) Atlanta stands to lose. There could be further penalties yet, however, as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweeted earlier this morning that it seems likely that the Braves will be banned from signing any international amateurs for at least one signing period. O’Brien also noted that there’s a “good chance” the Braves will lose some prospects as punishment, while Mark Bowman of MLB.com tweeted that he’d be “surprised” if the Braves didn’t lose at least one prospect, listing Maitain, Ji-Hwan Bae and Abrahan Gutierrez as potential prospects that could be impacted.
The Red Sox found themselves in a scandal that cost them prospects in July 2016. Boston forced to tear up the contracts of five international prospects that were deemed to have been acquired as part of a “package deals” system. In essence, the team overpaid marginal prospects whose trainers also represented more highly regarded young talents, with the trainers then funneling money to the superior prospect as a means of circumventing Boston’s spending limitations.
Those five prospects were allowed to keep their initial signing bonuses and became free agents that were once again subject to international bonus pools. The Red Sox were barred from signing any international amateurs during the 2016-17 period, so there’d certainly be precedent for imposing a signing ban on the Braves.
Per Rosenthal, any Braves prospects whose contracts are voided as a result of the league’s investigation will be treated in that same manner rather than being deemed unrestricted free agents.
I knew it (and called it); unfortunate but they have to pay the price for “Coppy’s” actions. Actions have consequences; Bruce Maxwell is learning this as well.
Very odd that you would pick Bruce Maxwell as the poster boy. He is still going through the legal system for being a dumbass and has seen no punishment yet – either legally or professionally. Why not pick one of the many guys who were convicted or cut/traded for their illegal actions?
We all know the answer to tat one.
Maitan is gone. Bet ya
The Red Sox didn’t lose that type of talent. Hopefully it will be lesser signees who they haven’t invested a ton of money and time in
redsox didn’t sign anyone significant
The Red Sox lost who they signed. I’d imagine MLB will follow precedent on this
Yep. Would otherwise be completely unfair.
Yea, that’s insanely harsh, especially considering that the entire organization’s power structure has been gutted as a result of this.
The more I️ think about it, the less likely it is the brave loose KM. The Braves have to accept the penalty and not appeal. MLB wants this over, as do the Braves….but they would never agree to loosing Maitan if they could avoid it.
I️ guarantee you Scherholtz and MLB are negotiating this penalty.
They are losing Maitan they signed him illegally that’s the whole point. Anyone signed illegally is gone.
Who was signed illegally? What have you seen that proves that?
it’s not like they’re deciding to get rid of him because that’s an appropriate punishment. They are losing him because he was the fruit of the illegal action
There’s no proof that he was signed illegally yet.
Regardless, the information that has seen light about Maitan is nothing that was surprising. For two years leading into the signing period, it was written that Maitan was widely rumored to have a handshake in place with the Braves. If MLB sanctions the Braves based on already known information PRIOR to the draft, and they do it to the tune of such an expensive signing, then the Braves will unleash an unholy hell of an expose on the rest of MLB. No one wants that.
Also, I’d like to note, the Red Sox lost players that they cheated the spending system on. There’s been no allegation that the Braves bundled or did anything that everyone else wasn’t doing, save maybe an apartment that some gold briefly stated in.
Do you have any idea what life is like for these teens? They’re slaves to their trainers. The kid staying in Florida for a few weeks isn’t the worst thing that can happen to them.
Do you know what unprecedented means? The Braves broke the international signing rules in a way that has not happened until now.
If Maitan was signed in a way that broke the rules, he should be taken from the Braves. If he was signed legitimately, then he shouldn’t be taken. It’s literally that simple.
Any team that breaks the rules should be punished. If the Braves expose the rest of the league, that’s good. I don’t care if that’s my favorite team or my least favorite team.
Rules are Rules. No exceptions
Well said. Until we know what they did exactly, then I don’t think it’s possible to speculate.
It’s like saying “this guy committed a really bad crime” and then people start suggesting punishment without knowing what the hell the guy did.
Yes, .. ‘if’. To Chrisones point, there has been nothing stated that he was ‘signed’ illegally. For all you know it could be that they gave him a stick of gum to chew on during his signing. The point is, we don’t know, and MLB has not stated that.
So far all we do know is that one ‘unknown source’ was quoted ass stating the Braves told potential signees ‘not to sign’ with other teams. That is nothing. In fact, if other teams claim they don’t say that I would tell you they are flat out lying. So, given that is the only bit we have seen, and it’s minor at best .. we really don’t know what is coming.
What I do know .. for some of these guys, tearing up the contract hurts the recruits FAR more on average than t helps. Most of these guys are busts. We all know this. If they go back three years and start tearing up contracts you will be hurting the players far more than the Braves in most cases. Certainly, one or two will hurt the Braves, but that is just a horrible rolling of the dice by MLB. A better punishment would be a ‘dead period’ for the Braves (likely a few years), or a reduction in allotments, or both. You penalize the organization directly that way without hurting the players already signed and trying to build a career. That being said, this is the MLB and their punishments are all over the map. They have proven that.
As long as acuna stays it’s ok
I’d like to finally hear exactly what they did. Everything is extremely vague.
It’s so weird that nothing has been leaked at all
Supposedly the Braves had an agreement with Maitan to sign him when he was 14 years old. Which is illegal because you have to be like 16 I think.
I thought there was something about paying for an apt through another player because he wasn’t able to have the Braves pay for the apt. They were also funneling money to him through the player but it was different than the sign for less and sign friends and give him some of their money. I don’t know for sure the article was pretty vague like most of them. I know there was an apt talked about.
What do you mean they paid people that weren’t allowed to be paid to get a certain player to sign with them. It has been very public info since day one.
If we don’t lose Kevin Maitan I’ll be extremely surprised
Why? They signed him illegally. Anyone signed illegally is gone
People seem to think it’s just gonna be random prospects selected as punishment. It will be ANY player signed illegally. Makes no difference if it’s a low or high level prospect
Your bias has blinded you. That guy thinks Maitan is as good as gone.
Every report out there says that there is no evidence Maitan was signed illegally. They may have found something since, but until it happens, why worry about it?
So if maitan is gone is he a free agent or subject to the 2015-2016 international class rules still
free agent
Given how IFAs are signed under the new CBA I’m willing to bet he would be a 2017 IFA, and given the same restrictions as Ohtani. Otherwise the sky’s the limit on how big of a second payday he could receive.
they have already been through the process and will be free agents. think about how if ohtani was signed then dfa. he wouldn’t be subject to the same rules under the cba
From the article above:
“Per Rosenthal, any Braves prospects whose contracts are voided as a result of the league’s investigation will be treated in that same manner rather than being deemed unrestricted free agents”
Basically they would need to go through the process again because rules were broken in their first signing. This isn’t the same thing as a team DFAing a player
if they keep the money (which they do) it shouldn’t be that way. and it wasn’t that way for the Redsox prospect not long ago
nevermind I read it wrong
I’m pretty sure he’d still affect any acquiring teams bonus pools.
no. they become actual free agents. not subject to international sign bonuses
Actually if you read KR’s article you’d realize they are FAs subject to int bonus.
More click bait by Rosenthal, with no new evidence.
There could be further penalties yet, however, as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweeted earlier this morning that it seems likely that the Braves will be banned from signing any international amateurs for at least one signing period. (O’Brien also noted that there’s a “good chance” the Braves will lose some prospects as punishment.)
What do you mean the evidence is all over the web what’s not there is who besides Maitan is gone. Anyone signed illegally is gone
Really? Where have you see that? I’ve seen nothing but pure speculation during this entire situation.
So the Ontani sweepstakes is down to 29 teams now?
Its anyone’s game now!!
Good lord, I hope they don’t lose out on their entire haul they went over to sign….Maitan, Severino, Gutierrez, Pena, Soto, etc. That would be a huge loss to their position player depth at the lower levels…Especially considering the Braves primarily used the amateur draft to stock up on pitchers that year, knowing they would get the likes of Maitan, Severino, Gutierrez, Pena, and Soto to add to their position player depth at the lower levels…
Losing Maitan would really hurt, considering he was supposed to be an enormous talent…A prospect that has comparisons to Miggy thrown around, well, he is not the kind of guy you just want to lose…BUT also both Severino and Gutierrez showed ALOT OF PROMISE this past season, and they would be huge losses as well…
This just sucks ….it royally sucks!!! I’m fully expecting the worst, and anything less than, well I’ll just be pleasantly suprised, I suppose…
Shouldn’t have signed him illegally lol
Dynamite drop-in there Monty.
No new news. Unfortunately Braves fans were already expecting at least some prospects to be lost.
I could see the braves losing their first round draft pick as well. In addition to being banned from signing international free agents for 2 years. I think the league will come down very hard on Atlanta and try to make an example out of them.
That would be harsh. Losing Maitan and the #8 pick in the draft. If this next draft is as strong as some have suggested that’s basically losing 2 top 100 prospects.
Maybe they’ll think twice about breaking the rules next time then…
Most likely other teams will think twice since its reported that the Braves haven’t done anything that pretty much 29 other teams haven’t done.
Please show evidence to back up your ridiculous claim. If you don’t have any, then don’t make outrageous claims. If everyone was doing it, they wouldn’t just punish the braves.
That’s definitely your speculation and not facts
Sorry to break it to you, but cheating on the international market is widespread in baseball. So much so scouts refer to it as the “wild west”. Plenty has been written on the subject, go look it up yourself. The Braves violations were just more numerous and egregious, which is what led to this becoming such a big deal.
MLB has just now started cracking down on this. It started with the Red Sox last June, now the Braves. They will punish teams that get caught to deter others from engaging in the same activities.
Do you know which teams signed the five Braves players that became free agents as a penalty?
I think you meant “Red Sox”. The five players were later signed by the Padres (RHP Cesar Gonzalez), Yankees (Eduardo Torrealba, SS), Brewers (Antonio Pinero, SS), Phillies (Simon Muzziotti, CF), and Mariners (Albert Guaimaro, RF).
Now here is a good question. What if the Braves traded Maitan at some point this season, what would have happened then if the intention of the league was to remove him from the organization?!
they would have had a punishment in a different way. longer ban for international signing probably
they would have probably been banned loger from international signing and possibly lose different prospect though that is doubtful. I believe the only prospect lost will be the ones that are directly involved
I was actually just wondering the same thing…my guess would be that MLB would void the trade but honestly I have no idea
Highly doubt MLB would go back and void the trade; that wouldn’t be fair to the team that traded for Maitan. They’d probably take away whatever other players the Braves signed during that period and a high draft pick, since they couldn’t take Maitan at that point.
My guess would be that MLB just wouldn’t let the Braves trade Maitan at all so any trade involving him wouldn’t go through…but like I said, I honestly have no idea and I’m just spitballing, so it’s possible that you’re right
It is probably safe to say that mlb officials would let the trade stand, because it effects to many lives, not within the game but on a personal level. But they would probably take the others and ban the Braves from intl. free agent signings for a year or two.
Like in any case of unjust enrichment, MLB would probably seek to disgorge the benefit. So they would either 1.) unwind the trade and send players back to their respective teams and then remove Maitan from Braves, or 2.) Remove the players acquired for Maitan from the Braves and immediately make them FAs.
Future Yankee, Kevin Maitan.
I hope so… leaves Ohtani to the Twins or Rangers
Or Giants :^)
Maitan was very close to choosing the Padres or White Sox as well, wouldn’t be surprised if his representation shifted back to those clubs when he is released.
but they don’t have money
A hard rain is gonna fall in Atlanta, but no storm lasts forever. Just gotta pick themselves up and make the best of a difficult situation.
This is one of those “disappointed but not surprised” moments.
Who is going to pay for Ken Rosenthals subscription so we can find out what else he is saying? Not me. Good try Ken.
Sorry for the repeat. New iPhones aren’t as great as they say lol
And the new iOS is garbage, at least for the iPhone 6…
Am I the only one who thinks the longer this goes on the less severe the punishment will be? Like honestly this isn’t news. They’ve been saying this exact same thing for months and have no clear definition of how ATL will be punished. To me, this signals they haven’t been able to connect the dots to anything firm that would be considered severe. If the dots had been connected to Maitan there wouldn’t have been much hesitation. They know rules were broken definitely and they’ve probably linked it to some lesser signings and they are scrambling to try and find some evidence to justify making the punishment more severe. That’s how all this reads to me. At worst they give up what they clearly don’t have (evidence on Maitan) and settle with the punishment being lost draft pick, restricted signing for a year, and some low tier int prospects they did link. At best they let us keep the draft pick, and the punishment is just restricted a year and loss of low tier prospects.
Gotta say at this juncture imo there’s like a 0% chance Maitan will be lost.
And the Twins just cleared $3mil. to spend on them
Not that they would have signed Maitan or Otani anyway, but seemingly the one time the Indians blow through their bonus pool money and things like this happen
If this situation indeed ends up like the one in Boston a few years back and Maitan can keep the bonus money while getting to explore the market again, he may choose a team that only has 300k left to spend based of familiarity from the visits and talks with clubs before signing with ATL. Like I mentioned above, I know SD was in the mix until the very end and Preller was very active on him, so was CHW. Their plans long term may have changed since signing Robert though however.
But my point being, since Maitan has 3 million in pocket already, he may get to be a little more “choosey” with where he decides to go this time around and may just choose one of the 300k bonus pool remaining teams of the situation is better.
That’s a joke right? You would bypass another $4m bc you were already paid $4m? All bc the White Sox called once upon a time? That’s a special kind of wishful thinking (same goes for the Padres)
I think we are missing something about Maitan. It’s very possible that if the Braves hadn’t meddled they would not have gotten Maitan in the first place. So maybe they didn’t deserve him and it makes sense to lose him. Don’t like it but that’s what happens when you cheat.
You know, Kevin Maitan may turn out to the best thing since sliced bread. But he is a 16 year old and he may stale bread by the time he’s close to MLB ready. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened. Don’t really understand investing that much money on teenagers.
Ronald Acuña was signed for something like 30k and he is arguably the best prospect in baseball. Many high draft picks don’t become the best prospects in MLB…if done legally, with patience you can find some of the futures best players for pennies on the dollar to what you would invest in the amateur draft. It is worth the millions clubs are putting into clinics in Latin America to develop relationships early with some of these players.
You are correct.
What did the Braves do that other clubs haven’t done?
This is likely started by Frank Wren’s idiot brother, who got butt hurt when he and Smilin Frank got sent packing.
That whole international signing system is full of corruption anyway. But that doesn’t excuse breaking the rules.
“What did the Braves do that other clubs haven’t done?”
Get caught.
Hard to say that if Coppy and Blakely are already gone. They are stuck holding the smoking gun until the penalties and investigation concludes. They took the helm when Wren left.
We will probably find out eventually…with the pending lawsuit between Coppy/Blakely and the Braves.
MLB needs to do whatever they are going to do so the braves can move forward. Yes, the braves cheated, yes, they got caught, they have cleaned house of the cheaters (although I think the other john’s were aware), now dish out the punishment so the braves know where they stand on players.
My question is, since Maitan was signed during the 2016 J2 class, would a team such as the Padres be able to sign him for whatever they want, plus the 100% tax, since it was during that period? Or will he only be available to the teams that currently have an allotment?
My reasoning is maybe teams from the 16 J2 class were trying to negotiate with him, but Atlanta came in higher, so they weren’t able to get a deal done.
Bye bye Matian. Watch him turn out to be one of the all-time greats. On a related note, Dansby Swanson is terrible.
I doubt he signs until February. I would imagine teams are holding onto their bonus $ for the time being to watch the Ohtani sweepstakes play out (seeing as how almost everyone is “in-play”. Once Ohtani’s off the market, the other 28 teams will fight over Maitan, Salinas, Marte and JP Martinez (if he’s declared a FA). Overall this is the most exciting signing period in memory.
It’s almost like a second July 2. Instead of Christmas in July we get a July for Christmas.
Real bummer for the Braves and the farm system. Unfortunately they will be the poster child for these type of signings and deals! But to all the high and mighty fans of other teams, go back 3 weeks and the article was MLB investigating as many as 10-15 teams for the same thing. All teams are doing this. Change the system so that every player is drafted, with slot values set and crap like this goes away!!
That should be done. The international signing circus needs to fold its tents.
Maitain won’t be cut loose by mlb. They won’t award him two big signing days. They will lose the other 4 or 5 players they signed that year which would be worse then just Maitain in my opinion. The punishment will include a fine and a ban from signing and potentially future amateur draft picks. Coppy got ratted on by other GMs. I read that 20 teams currently have agreements with players under 16 so he was hardly the only one cheating. You could say Coppy was responsible for the insane trade market and was very aggressive with other things and I’m guessing the good old boys club didn’t like that so they tossed him under the bus.
Interesting ….
Flawed logic. If the Braves are found to have violated rules in signing him, he’ll be a free agent. Period. In other words, he’s about to become a free agent.
A couple of people keep stating the scope of the rules breaking is all over the internet, but I have yet to see anything other than rumors, including:
-Bonus bundling – What Boston did which caused loss of all bundled prospects to be released to re-sign while keeping their bonus only (which may have hurt some players). As a reminder, Moancada and Espinoza were not affected though their signings are what put Boston over their pool and forced them to only sign others to a max of $300k bonus each (thus inducing Boston to cheat by bundling). I doubt the Braves ‘bundled’ extra money for Maitan given he signed ahead of others. More likely, his signing and some others may have put them into the same situation as Boston and forced them to bundled to get some lesser prospects to sign while giving them more than $300k in bonus). If they did roll the dice on a bundle with Maitan to save space for lesser signings later then they are beyond stupid.
– Appartment lease – Maitan and another prospect that signed with the Braves stayed in an apartment in Florida for a couple of months before their deal was finalized. The MLB was investigating to see if the Braves funded this apartment Apparently this is illegal even if the prospect has already announced he is signing with said team and just hasn’t finalized the deal. I find this a strange rule … hey, come on up to sign, but even though you are a poor kid from another country we can’t pay for you to fly, drive, or stay while we work out the legal agreement and get visa, proof of birth, etc.). Not that the team couldn’t travel to where he is, but with the kidnappings and such of players about to make some money in some of these countries I would think some lee-way would be given as to bringing them stateside as quickly as possible rather than wait for the contract to get approved by MLB.
– Pre-arranged signing deals with draft picks. This obviously would not affect the foreign market but could be big. This would likely deal with loss of future draft picks, and possibly a loss of the players. Heck, the Braves might be happy to release some of their picks and recoup some money.
– ‘Goodies’ for draft picks. This would be an attempt to skirt slot money and total pool with outside arrangements and would likely result int he same as above. Again though, it would likely only be in the ‘draft pick’ area and not the foreign market.
That’s the RUMOR list from 4-5 different places. None are official yet. In each case the MLB was said to be investigating. It was also rumored on a couple of sites that the signing of Maitan had already been investigated and cleared, but then a week later on another site it said they were investigating the Maitan signing.
Seems like a bunch of click-bait so far. Does anyone have anything CONFIRMED? We all know how they like to blow the accusations up to get viewers to read. The Red Sox were originally rumored to be losing Moancada and Espinoza. That didn’t take form so I feel like we really still don’t know anything about what is happening with the Braves.
I agree everything you wrote except for the pre-draft agreements. Unless the player is drafted by the said team that “promised” something, the agreement means nothing. It was rumored that the Padres were to select Jason Groome in either 25 or 26th pick promising $5 million, and was widely reported, though there was no investigation. Giving more than what the contract said on its face, on the other hand, is a matter Manfred will swing the hammer for (obviously because there is a cap to how much money a team can spend for a draft in a given year.) From what I know, Drew Water allegedly received (or was promised to receive?) a car outside of what was promised in the contract.
There’s a good chance we’ll never know. The Braves would be smart to pay ex employees some $ to sign NDA’s.
There was also a rumor of them promising a potential draftee perks if he tanked a game that would have been heavily attended by other scouts, so that he’d fall out of the first round. Something he reportedly did.
Wilson Betemit 2.0…..different FO personnel…same organization. If u don’t get caught it ain’t cheatin….
Guys, THIS IS NOT LOOKING GOOD!
My aunt is a psychic and she told me they will lose some really good players!
OHMIGOD, this isn’t good! I feel bad for the Braves franchise.
Thanks Obama!
Nothing new yet. I was hoping we’d get real information and resolution today (Monday).
If you’re a team that has money left what do you do if some good prospects come loose this week? Sign players you like or save your money for Ohtani?
If Maitan, or whoever they lose, wants to go to the highest bidder, he/they’ll just wait until after Ohtani signs.
Pretend that those players don’t exist….just ignore them…Like The Orioles !!!
Maitain is staying, just got off the phone with John and Alex. They say the whole “scandal” is about a “Coachella” band they all went to see with said prospects. Not a “Coppelella brand ” miscrepincies the Mlb claims to have discovered. Whew, here i thought everyone knew what was happening.
Lighten up guys. You act like youre on the roster .
They lost them all
Second time this has happened and all accounts say it is much worse than Boston. Grow a pair and drop the hammer MLB.
By what accounts is it worse than Boston?? They should have dropped the hammer on Boston and not given them a slap on the wrist.. you will see Atlanta gets thrown under the bus and the 20 other teams that did the same thing get swept under the rug.. I guess Manfred is taking a page out of Goodells book and choosing who gets the hammer and who gets off.
I agree and I just don’t want to have to agree. Clean up the system and hammer all teams. In fact, teams that aren’t being investigated but most likely cheated are being rewarded when MLB takes actions against the Red Sox and Braves by giving them more flexibility to sign these free agents. That said, the Braves need to be hit hard enough b/c I’m damn sure the cheating is rampant internationally speaking.
Its just a real bad look for MLB to pick and choose punishments and severity and then let others skate. I said on an earlier post, implement an international draft and this all goes away! MLB is better than this, it took forever to get a hold of steroids because they sat on there hands.. let’s be proactive and not reactive so this doesn’t happen again..
except they arent, Manfred said what the braves did was far worse than what bostom or any other team has done
“The scope of the Braves’ scheme remains unclear, but a source familiar with it deemed it “significantly bigger” than a similar one employed by the Boston Red Sox in the 2015-16 signing period.”
sports.yahoo.com/john-coppolellas-resignation-just…
mlbtraderumors.com/2017/10/latest-on-braves-invest…
You don’t say “unprecedented” if it’s the same thing Boston did. Because a precedent was set. But whatever you have to tell yourself to believe that they aren’t at least being portrayed as a worse offender. Have at it. MLb needs to hammer them. A 3-5 year international signing ban on top of fines and losing international singings would be a start.
Braves fans are working overtime with the whataboutisms.
Not sure where anyone said there should be no penalties or it’s ok what Coppy and the Braves did.. I agree and understand that there should be a harsh punishment for any and all violations. But this system is not inclusive to the Braves or Red Sox! MLB has created and allowed for this to happen. The point is, focus has been directed to one team, when the original report was 15-20 teams. So MLB is choosing to hammer the Braves and let the other teams skate, instead of going after all involved and choosing to address that market so this isn’t happening any more!
We don’t know EXACTLY what they are being penalized for. So you cannot compare them to other teams. It is widely reported that the EXTENT to which they cheated, and not just by bundling or agreeing on contracts too soon, was unprecedented.
This is about the Braves. The Braves. The Braves. The Braves.
What would the “hammer” have looked like for Boston? They lost all players they would not have been otherwise able to sign, and were unable to sign international free agents for an additional year. Their crime was also seen as something that others teams did and got swept under the rug. What else would you have done to them?
Where did you see that 20 other teams did the exact same thing?
other teams didnt do what the braves did thats why its unprecedented
braves fans are the only ones claiming others did the same and its not true
They dropped the hammer lol
How does this work? Do the players get to keep the full signing bonus? Are they just put back in the international player pot for anyone to sign under the normal rules?
The keep the signing bonuses and they are now amateur ifa’s under the new system.
Thank you
Cubs salivating at the opportunity.
To offer no more than $300k for each player?
Neat.
Butt hurt
Daddy is home. Time for an ass beating.
So right now if they lose Maitan and Gutierrez they will at least lose their #5 and #30 ranked prospects.
Honestly I’ve always wondered how the braves had signed so many Intl FAs….
Honestly I’ve wondered the same thing about the Padres, who signed way more top guys than the Braves did in 2016
And then the Braves were set back 3-5 yrs!!!
I still wish that Hector Olivera would have grown to at least half of his potential.