Cuban outfielder Julio Pablo Martinez has been declared a free agent by Major League Baseball and will be free to sign with a Major League organization beginning on March 6, reports Ben Badler of Baseball America. The 21-year-old Martinez is subject to international bonus pools due to his age and lack of professional experience in the Cuban National Series, so he’ll now have to decide whether to sign with a team during the current signing period (when many teams have already spent the bulk or entirety of their league-allotted budget) or after the July 2 kick off the 2018-19 period.
According to Badler, the Rangers, Yankees and Marlins are the current favorites for Martinez, who is one of the more touted prospects to come out of Cuba in recent seasons. If Martinez opts to sign with the Yankees or Marlins, per Badler, he’d likely be waiting until this coming summer to sign so that both teams could tap into their 2018-19 pools. The Yankees added a pair of Venezuelan prospects back in late December and also picked up former Braves farmhand Angel Rojas for $350K, thus accounting for some of what was left over from a failed run at Shohei Ohtani.
Texas had $3.535MM in pool allotments to spend on Ohtani before he opted to sign with the division-rival Angels. They’ve since reallocated some of their pool by signing shortstops Yenci Pena (for $675K) and Keithron Moss (for $800K) as well as outfielder D’Vaughn Knowles (for $500K). That’d still leave as much as $1.56MM to offer Martinez to begin his pro career in the current signing period (though it’s possible the pool is a bit lesser depending on whether Texas has made some smaller-scale signings that were not widely reported).
Certainly, other clubs could enter the mix for Martinez — especially if he is keen on waiting until July to sign a contract. Far more teams would be able to weigh a pursuit of the 21-year-old at that time, and given the appeal touted by Badler in his scouting reports on Martinez, several teams would figure to have interest. Badler lists Martinez at 5’10” and 180 pounds, praising a blend of power and speed, and he’s expanded on the talented young outfielder in a pair of prior columns — both of which those looking to learn more about Martinez will want to check out.
The left-handed-hitting, left-handed-throwing Martinez hit .333/.469/.498 with six homers, 11 doubles, two triples and 24 steals (in 29 attempts) during his most recent professional effort in Cuba. More impressively, he drew 52 walks that season against just 30 strikeouts in 264 plate appearances.
He also appeared in 57 games and tallied 255 plate appearances in the 2017 Can-Am Association — the same independent league that was previously home to big leaguers Chris Colabello, Andrew Albers, Craig Breslow, Steve Delabar and Tim Adleman, among others — where he hit .297/.345/.449 with seven homers and 20 steals. In today’s piece, Badler notes that Martinez is likely of an appropriate skill level to begin his path to the Majors in Class-A Advanced or in Double-A.
He will prolly move to NYC by nighttime!
I thought they NYY’s still had pool money left from what they didn’t spent on Ohtani.
Don’t the Yankees have a fair amount of money leftover from Ohtani not signing as well?
A player like this has Atkins/ Shapiro written all over it. Anyone know how much available money the Jays have?
Prior to Ohtani Jay’s only had $50,000…don’t know if they acquired more
They are still capped at paying more thank $300k anyways u less he does wait for the next signing period in July.
Ahem….Orioles, you can always make an entrance into the international market….
You’re funny lol
The Braves are exempt from making this kind of international signing, and I would still bet on them over the Orioles.
Cant see him wanting to go to NY seeing he is blocked by so many OFers. Marlins make sense but time is money, best sign now and get a full season in the minors under your belt.
CF or corner OF?
I’m picturing this guy as Carlos fro Benchwarmers. I NEED A REFILL
Seattle really needs to sign him.
They will again be beat out by the Angels.
And the Angels diddnt trade away one of their top 10 prospects for international money to not get to use it.
Actually, they did. Pearson was their number 10 prospect. But neither teams’ farms were/are deep. Both traded their number 10 prospect, but neither would have been top 20 for most clubs.
I should have read that twice before responding. Yes, they did get to use it. Somehow I missed that part.
But of course, LAA doesn’t have the dough to land him right now. I’m not so sure he’ll wait to sign in the new period, either. He would be competing with far more players for dough, whereas now he could pull in a couple of million from Seattle. I’m not sure who has the most to spend, but Seattle should have around 2 million. They sent 1 million to Tampa and 5ook to Cleveland.
They do need Martinez. He fits the profile of what they look for perfectly, and with a farm system with almost nothing left apart from relievers, Martinez would give them a boost.
Why would he not wait?
Because there is a hard cap in place and he would be competing with a slew of highly touted prospects for limited dough. Right now, there’s a few teams that could afford to give him a decent payday because of the Ohtani bonanza, and virtually all the other decent prospects in this signing period have already signed.
It’s possible he’ll wait and see if a team will acquire more dough to get him paid in the next period, but there’s certainly reason for him to sign now.
Marlins need him with the Cuban population
And he could go right from AA to the Marlin, a AAAA franchise…
Why go to the Yankees? So their fans can throw batteries at him?
Is this a center fielder or corner outfielder?
This is EXACTLY what the mariners should be going after. Even if he does not fit on the team in the long term be it money or whatever, these are the type of players they can at very least trade in the future for prospects to build their sorry farm system. Cmon.
He “controls the zone” and he’s a LHH with solid defense. He absolutely fits the profile of what Dipoto looks for. But yeah, if nothing else, he could be used to acquire pitching.
If he wants to play in NY, the Mets are his best bet. Cespedes and Bruce are gonna be gone by the time he makes it to the bigs.