9:07pm: The Halos have also landed another former Braves shortstop, according to Baseball America’s Ben Badler. Youngster Livan Soto is also heading to the Los Angeles organization after striking a $850K deal. That’s nearly as much as his original $1MM bonus.
Soto isn’t even halfway into his his 18th year, so he’s particularly youthful. He struggled to a .225/.332/.254 slash in 208 plate appearances in the Gulf Coast League, but did draw 27 walks against 26 plate appearances. Despite the tepid output, BA’s J.J. Cooper wrote recently (subscription link) that scouts were generally pleased with what he has shown initially.
12:00pm: Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com reports that Maitan will receive a $2.2MM signing bonus (Twitter link). That’s more than the Halos have in available 2017-18 international funds, so it indeed seems that they’ll be paying Maitan with their 2018-19 bonus pool.
11:45am: The Angels have agreed to a deal with infield prospect Kevin Maitan, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney (via Twitter). The former Braves prospect was declared a free agent by commissioner Rob Manfred following his office’s investigations into Atlanta’s circumvention of rules on the international free agent market and in the domestic amateur draft.
The addition of Maitan will be a jolt to an Angels farm system that has long rated as one of the game’s worst but has steadily improved in recent seasons. The 17-year-old Maitan didn’t perform well in his first professional season, hitting just .241/.290/.340 in 176 plate appearances between the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League and Appalachian League.
The switch-hitting Maitan was still considered by some to be one of the game’s top overall prospects and should slot in at or near the top of his new organization’s prospect rankings. It would be misleading, though, to suggest that Maitan’s struggles didn’t hamper his value to some extent; Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper, for instance, tweets that he’s spoken to several scouts who wouldn’t rank Maitan among the game’s 100 best prospects at this juncture.
The Angels picked up $1.21MM of international spending money in a recent trade with the Braves in which they agreed to take on the entirety of Jim Johnson’s remaining salary from Atlanta. That gave the Halos a total of $1.315MM with which to work on the international front. GM Billy Eppler said at the time that that money was earmarked for Shohei Ohtani, but it’s critical to note that for the former Braves prospects deemed to be free agents, teams are allowed to dip into next year’s bonus pool as well.
In other words, the Halos could very well have committed a significant portion of their 2018-19 international pool to Maitan while still reserving the $1.315MM sum (and any other funds they can acquire) for their pursuit of Ohtani.
Thank god it was with an AL team.
Why Thank God?
I would imagine that it is because he is a fan of a particular NL team and won’t have to face him frequently (assuming he lives up to his potential to some extent).
Yeah but that just seems so strange. He’s only 17 and probably won’t be in the big leagues for awhile if he even makes it there. A little bit too early to be “worried” about a Possible good prospect. Besides, there are far more prospects who are better who are in the NL. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I’m sure Top 100 is close to 50/50 AL/NL.
He may not even stick with LAA. He’s so far away from the big leagues and could be traded later on. Signing him won’t have an immediate impact, and I’d say there’s a decent chance he may not impact LAA at all. Top prospects get traded.
With how bad a farm the Angels have, I’d doubt they would trade him
Does this rule out Ohtani?
If they have any slot money left, it shouldn’t.
They didn’t have that much left from 2017-2018 signing period, so they used about half of their pool for the 2018-2019 signing period. MLB is allowing teams to use the next signing period’s pool money to sign the Braves players that were made IFA again.
The $2.2 million is less than half of what he signed for with the Braves originally.
Well since Ohtani is considering multiple teams that can only offer $300k, I highly doubt this signing will have any affect.
Unless they spent the remaining bonus pool.
They probably spent all of next years and not much of the money planned for ohtani. Maitan probably still wanted money and went to the team who would give him the most unlike ohtani
Taking from their 2018-9 amounts.
“it’s critical to note that for the former Braves prospects deemed to be free agents, teams are allowed to dip into next year’s bonus pool as well.”
“In other words, the Halos could very well have committed a significant portion of their 2018-19 international pool to Maitan while still reserving the $1.315MM sum (and any other funds they can acquire) for their pursuit of Ohtani.”
It’s right in the article…Royals are restricted to $300K yet spent $650k…the rules are different for the Braves IFA’s
I posted my comment before they updated the article. But yes, that does answer my question.
man, I just ask a question and get downvotes lol
Use the app. Doesn’t see votes from the little kids
Or be an adult and stop caring about silly things like comment votes.
Who cares?
The way it works in regards to the braves prospects is you can use either this years or next years pool money but not both. Since they spent more than they have it is next years and their 1.3 is intact.
No. The Braves used money from the 2018-2019 signing period IFA pool to sign him, not this signing period. They still have money for Ohtani.
I think you mean the angels
You are absolutely correct.
Cash man you awake bro?
Probably not…. he’s probably busy dreaming of repelling off buildings
the good ole days
Yanks may not value him as much as others. I by no means am saying he’s NOT a legit prospect, but keep in mind that not all evaporators felt he was as good as previously stated. Assuming the kid doesn’t have a team preference, I think Cash would’ve gone harder had he felt he was worth it.
I assume the Yanks will spread the love on a few other prospects.
Question…If the money in this years pool isn’t exhausted, does it carry over til next years pool?
it dose not
i dose so
I really hope we still have money for Ohtani
How does this affect their Ohtani chances?
It doesn’t in any way.
At least he didn’t sign in the NL
Braves will trade you Aaron Blair for Maitan.
It would be funny if they traded back for some of the prospects they lost
Well then.
Surprised one of the 7 teams in the running for Ohtani signed any of the Braves IFA that were released. Not that Ohtani seems to care about money or anything but that can’t help their odds.
If using their 2018-9 funds, it doesn’t change a thing.
ah makes much more sense now. thanks for the clarification.
Teams are allowed to use this year or next year’s international money to sign ex-Brave farmhands. The Angels may have used next year’s money here. Another alternative is that they have a deal in place for more international money for this year.
They took from next years pool.
And just like that .. the Angel farm system is starting to move up the ranks!!
From 29th to 28th?
Sheesh, the Yanks are 0-3 this offseason (Boone, Otani, Maitan)
You forgot losing the minor league coach, Pedrigeu
Really not a bad slash line for a 17-yr old. How many high school juniors would put up that line, even in rookie ball? Good pickup for the Angels, even though he’s probably 3-4 years away.
Not that great either, for the hype surrounding him.
It’s great for a 17 year old facing culture shock.
A .596 OPS is terrible. There’s no context that such a bad season shows anything good for the future. The reason to disregard the season is because 17 year olds don’t play in the Appalachian League. Teams will revert back to their original evaluation. That was clearly quite good.
Just an angry ATL fan. U MAD BRO
He came in very overweight, played poorly with a bad attitude, showed poor plate discipline and instincts in the field. Maitan will not be in the top 50 prospects for 2018 according to both Longenhagen and Badler. Possibly not top 100.
Seriously, it’s such a small investment your argument is week.
But your argument, fine sir, is month!
What?!??$&$(???
*weak
Now everyone will say he is bad and the angels wasted their money. If he was on yankees he is a generational talent.
At least NYY still has their Ohtani money they traded for.
Any idea who they are looking at?
And no one to spend it on. Not enough top prospects left, even with the Braves former guys, to spend $3+ million.
I read an article yesterday that they were looking at the latest Cuban defector
Juan Pablo Martinez? That would make sense, but he is not expected to get a large bonus.
and a catcher and a couple others
Plenty of guys to spend it on. Of the top 30 international prospects, Maitan, Severino and Pena were ranked among the top 30. Even that being said, there are dozens of cases where a guy signed for $15-$200k ended up being a top prospect.
If the Yanks wanted I’m sure they could snatch up 3 or 4 of these guys. I mean Pena signed for $1 mil and Severino signed for $1.9 mil. No reason to think they can’t be had for the same or even less since they get to keep the Brave’s money.
Yanks, or other teams, may have felt it to be smarter to spread their money on less heralded guys, especially if they don’t value Maitan the same as the Braves did.
Not true. There’s Martinez as he’s already been mentioned with a couple of top 15 guys from this current signing period that have not signed yet in Raimfer Salinas and Antonio Cabello, both of whom have been tied to the Yankees. There’s still quite a bit of talent left, not to mention the rest of the Braves’ ex-prospects.
Strongly agree. The dude is 17. If he’s hitting .241 as a 19 year old, the Halos should worry. But even then, he’s still going to break the big leagues. We’ll see when he gets there.
You and your ignorance should leave
Very true, imindless. Since Dipoto’s Roberto Baldoquin (Cuba) $14m deal backfired, I think the perception of the Angel’s ability to scout international talent has been tainted. I’m hopeful that Maitan will mature and become a valuable asset to the organization. He’s still so young and his ceiling is unknown.
This signing is clearly bad for Maitan. If he went to NY, he was a no doubt top 20 prospect this winter. In LA, he should drop from 38 to 70+.
He will drop that far or further because he came in very overweight, had a bad attitude and work ethic, hit poorly with bad plate discipline, showed poor instincts in the field, and was just overall a disappointment. Regardless of his age, he showed no signs of being worth the $4.5 million or more the Braves paid him.
Now he gets another $2.2 million. For a kid that grew up very poor, that will either be a wake up call or he will implode under the weight of all that money at that age. For the Angel’s sake, I hope he rebounds and shows something.
Braves helped him get there with the Jim Johnson trade.
No they didn’t
Yeah they did. Braves gave them a good amount of pool money
They gave them 2017-2018 pool money. The Angels used 2018-2019 pool money for this. None of that came from the Braves.
Angels used 2018-2019 international pool money! The money the Braves gave them is going to be used for Ohtani if he signs with them!
The pool money can give them the flexibility to make this possible. Even if it is not directly used. If they miss out on Ohtani they can sign some guys to fill the holes that will be left when they are restricted in the 2019 period.
Exactly
Yes, they did. If the Angel’s didn’t have an additional $1.2 million to spend on Ohtani or other IFA prospects, they would not have made a move to get Maitan with half of their 2018-2019 pool.
Different money. Braves are using their 2018-19 pool money to sign Maitan.
I think you mean Angels, since the Braves had to release him!
Teams often have most of their pool money allocated fro the following season. It’d be surprising if the Angels have $2.2 million of their $4.75 million left for next season. They either would have to reneg on commitments or trade for more of next year’s pool money starting in July. The good news is that the Braves should have plenty to trade.
WTF Al Avila!!!
We need talent.
That’s a shocker
Figured he’d go with a team with a future and money
They have money but no future
This isn’t Bryce Harper. He is 19 and trying to prove a name for himself. By the time he is ready you have no idea who will be contending
How bro?
I’m being serious
They got so much money tied up on the field
No pitching
And that farm is in the bottom 25 even with this signing
Angels need to trade trout, get a haul and rebuild
No they dont. Its not hard to compete in the AL. Maitan is not proven. He is going to where the top dollar is and that was the angels
Maher to compete in the al?
Al West is the 2nd easiest division in baseball behind al central
In what sense? A team from the AL West and AL Central have won 2 of the last three World Series. Five WS runner-ups represented both of these divisions in the last 10 years…In the last 3 seasons the AL owns NL 492-408.
Lowtalker1 get a job and stop with your stupid negative comments. Every time I log on you are commenting on something you don’t have any clue of. You just like to hear yourself talk. You probably sit on the couch eating pizza your mom had delivered watching ESPN in between episodes of Andy Griffith show. So boring.
Nice job Angels
Agreed
I understand the situation they are in and don’t ask much of the Pirates, but they could have beaten this offer.
How much $$$ do they have left? I think there are better values out there.
Raimfer Salinas is one of my favorites. Kid’s a stud and will probably cost less than Maitan.
They were listed as having the 4th most money to offer Ohtani and had more than $2.2 million.
I’d rather invest in blue chippers, but missing out on that, a quantity approach could work, too.
The real winners are the prospects as they get to double dip.
Thats the truth,
I wish I could have made $6.2 million by the time I was 17.
I just hope he has someone making sure he’s responsible with it.
Im a bit shocked that the Yanks didnt go for broke and matched or topped the Angels’ offer. They still had a considerable amount of pool space.
Glad he went to Angels of all teams I don’t think we will ever feel his loss at least right up front & in our face I would love for at least 1 of these guys wait and resign with the Braves they already got some money I would hope our minor league coaches would have at least 1 of them feeling to comfortable to leave
What’s the waiting period for the braves again?
Much better farm now
Still don’t see why he gets to keep the original money and sign somewhere else and get more. I can’t be the only one who see’s that as a broken system. brb purposefully signing illegally and then reporting it so I can double my paycheck.
If you don’t want to return the money to ATL that’s fine. I’m not saying that’s where it should go. But I think it should be stripped from the player in question as well. If they negotiated illegally they were just as much a part of it. Have the Braves money go to charity or something (so neither the Braves or the player get it back) and the player forced to re-sign as best he is able to.
Not their fault the braves cheated
They didn’t cheat. They negotiated in good faith. I have no problem with them getting to keep their money.
If they didn’t cheat the Braves didn’t cheat. Braves didn’t break these rules in their own. Anyway you spin it their neglect is basically netting them 2 contracts.
The argument that “they didn’t know” or “it’s not their responsibility” really doesn’t make sense. So being completely out of the loop on your future nets you bonuses in life? Lmao
Agreed. Players are incentivized to sign these shady contracts because even if they get caught they just get to sign a new one. Ignorance of the law doesn’t excuse the law. If these kids want to come to our country they should know the rules, and that’s not even taking into account the baseball side. Not really sure why Americans are forced into a draconian draft system while foreigners are allowed to choose their destiny. Get rid of the ridiculous international rules and institute a draft. Eliminate the players union as last I checked it’s illegal for unions to dictate terms of people they don’t represent. Monopoly laws should apply. The American has been taken out of America’s past time.
Ann Coulter is that you?
Chill out Alex Jones.
Al Franken is that you?
Actually, baseball is the only major sport that is exempt from anti-trust laws. This allows them to do a lot of things they do.
There is merit to that
You expect an international kid to completely be in the know to how those deals were worked through the wood work? Not saying he is dumb, but to expect that he’s responsible also is a stretch to me. Good for him to keep the money. His hands weren’t caught in the cookie jar. Hopefully he works out with the Angels.
So it’s ok for them to receive millions of dollars but we can’t expect them to take the time to understand the rules of the contracts they are signing? If they can’t take the time to know what is and isn’t ok, or sign a handler and tell him to follow the rules at the very least, then he really doesn’t deserve millions.
Again I’m not suggesting a horrible punishment here. But why does his neglect net him 2 contracts? In what world does that make sense? I’m just suggesting he start from square 1 and renegotiate properly
What if the prospect lost a lot of value and his 500000 thousand dollar contract turns into a 50000 $ contract? You can’t punish them because the team cheated. And no, it’s not on the prospects to get a calculator out and add up all their signing teams contracts
More likely the kids didn’t have an agreement directly with the club at all. These kids have handlers and it was the handlers that worked with the Braves to collude as they did. The kids probably have no idea as to what was happening.
They choose their handlers. The punishment of making them sign again from scratch is pretty lenient here. It’s not like it’s some massive penalty I’m suggesting
Why don’t you just suggest they put chains on them
and brand them
and beat them with whips too! Get off your high
and mighty horse dude! Get a gripe !
Cool. I should be able to check him out at Inland Empire.
I can’t believe that the Angles haven’t strongly pursued Stanton. He wants to be in LA. Theirs Owners have the money to cover his contract. The money to cover the luxury tax and the money to cover his taxes. Plus, they have trade pieces for another top tiered pitcher. Some one lie Arrietta. Trout then Stanton, then Pujols. Wow! He’d like that!!!
Boy there’s a lot of misspelled words in the upper post!!! Ha!
“Weather doesn’t play any factor into where these kids want to play”
*Maitan signs for nearly half of what he got before to play in sunny Los Angeles*
<—- sips tea.
Turns out someone who's met with players like him actually knows more than the angry keyboard warriors here.. carry on
What does this even mean? This article doesn’t say he had a bigger offer from a team in a city with worse weather; was that reported elsewhere? I’m surprised the Angels would pay him as much as they are after a .630 OPS season. I would be somewhat shocked if anyone else was offering much more.
It’s particularly impressive that Soto drew 27 walks in just 26 plate appearances.
Just caught that lol
Actually it says 27 walks against 26 plate appearances. Me thinks the plate appearances was meant to be strike outs. 🙂 Typos can be fun!
Obviously that’s what it meant
Well that means Victor Julio Pablo Martinez is going to the Yankess then. Cashman must know that he must be the next Mike Trout or surely they would have gone after Maitan. He will make NYY World Series contenders for years and years to come.
Just like Ohtani and Maitan were.
Interesting… probably not quite Mike Trout on the Yankees, but when they have him Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge, this could get interesting… What will they do with Florial, Frazier, Hicks, Gardner, Ellsbury etc. Probably trade them for another ace like Scherzer or Stas or something
Good luck to them in the Angels organization.
Trade with Angels\\\\\\\\\\\\Markakis,Sims,Blair and Cumberland for K.Calhoun and J.C. Ramirez.