It has been five years since the Angels, led at that point by former general manager Jerry Dipoto, signed Cuban infield prospect Roberto Baldoquin for what was then a record bonus worth $8MM. But the Angels and current GM Billy Eppler have moved on from Baldoquin, whom they recently released, according to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America.
Including the 100 percent overage tax that accompanied the Baldoquin signing, the Angels forked over somewhere between $14MM and $15MM to land him, as Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times and Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register note. The Halos ultimately got nothing from that investment. To make matters worse, the Baldoquin deal prevented the Angels from inking an international free agent for more than $300K during the ensuing two signing periods, which featured the likes of Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. All three signed for greater amounts.
Baldoquin, who will turn 26 years old next month, has never stood out in minor league baseball since he emigrated from his homeland. With the exception of a decent short-term High-A stint in 2018, his numbers at the lower levels have ranged from a bit below average to terrible. Baldoquin’s struggled continued last year in Double-A ball, where he batted .232/.291/.301 (74 wRC+) with two home runs and a microscopic .070 isolated power mark in 299 trips to the plate.
oh boy what a ride. future superstar.
Funny how all these transactions are coming out now with this transaction freeze….hmmm
I read this comment 10 times and genuinely cant tell what you are implying. That theres not a freeze at all? That its not real? That nothing is real?
I think im too high.
It happened before the freeze. It just took some time to get reported.
Waiting for the Jerry Dipsnot apologists to say he was forced to sign him.
Nobody’s going to say that…
When can his fingerprints finally be removed from the organization?
I recall him saying that Baldoquin was going to be a sure bet to be a major leaguer over Vlad Jr.
Meh there’s always rusney Castillo he’s still being paid money by the Red Sox
Yasmany Thomas
finally
A Cuban bust
Vanessa Del Rio?
Hell of an organization.
Well they do have the best hitter in baseball. I will give them credit for that. If only they had some good pitchers…
Yes, because no matter how good your offense is, generally you will not make the playoffs with a garbage pitching staff and even if you do, you will more likely than not be ousted in the first round.
The Angels would have at least Mike Clevinger but smartie Jerry Dipoto traded him for worthless Vinnie Pestano.
he is the poison pill dipoto left for the angels. dipdip is unprofessional and mariners took face-dive into a septic tank for signing dipoto.
Viz, the irony is that JeDi went to Seattle and suddenly learned to build a farm system after sending a rocket full of salt into the soil underneth Angel stadium.
He just traded everything that wasn’t nailed down in Seattle. Wait until the M’s start trying to win. JeDi will trade everyone, cause chaos and get nowhere
The Mariners don’t have that good of a farm system. And Dipoto isn’t finished. He’ll trade the good prospects for trash. Give him time.
Dipoto was and is a lousy GM. He’s known as a deal maker but name a deal they came out on top. Traded Segura away from the Angels. Then brought him to Seattle for Ketle Matter. Between Tony Reagins and Dipoto the Angels should feel lucky Trout didn’t get traded. Traded Skaggs and Corbin with 2 others for Dan Haren. Day what you will about Eppler, but he’s doing a good job in Anaheim. There’s nothing he could have done about all the injuries to the pitching staff. He hasn’t made any major multi year signings that were complete busts. All his bad signings only cost us a year, all the BIG signings are Arte.
Eppler has very little to go on to suggest he’s done a “good” job. The Angels still have one major problem they haven’t fixed; spending. They’ve had a spending problem for at least a decade and can’t seem to gain any momentum, like a postseason run or two, from the investments they have made. Let’s declare the Eppler decision undecided.
Eppler was forced to try to win while also building a farm, that’s almost impossible. He went from the worst farm anyone had ever seen to top 20 in 3 years without trading any major player or adding any major deficits. Upton might be a bust when it’s all said and done, but he was cheap when they traded for him (prospect wise) and his deal was market value at the time. Spending is on ownership.
Spending is also on the General Manager. Eppler takes partial responsibility. WIth the best player in baseball on the team and the amount of money spent, Eppler isn’t even threatening postseason contention. As I said, WAY too soon to claim he’s done a good job considering your very first point; he needs another year or two to let HIS drafts/scouting to come up to the show before we can properly assess the job he has done.
Maybe the Angels would have been in the playoffs in 2017 if the Astros didn’t cheat all season.
Looking back at his Cuban League stats at the time… it’s kind of weird the Angels felt he was worth such a big bonus at the time. I mean I know he was obviously young and the sample size was limited but in general the best of the best in Cuba put up better numbers than he did — especially at age 19. I mean for example look at Luis Robert — he was in the CNS from the time he was 15 and even as a 16-18 year old was posting significantly better numbers in Cuba than Baldoquin. Granted Robert signed for $30+M and Baldoquin signed for $8M (rule changes also factored into those amount shifts though). But anyway too bad for him and the Angels as I’m sure they’re both disappointed with how things turned out. Will be interesting to see is Baldoquin gets another shot somewhere either in the US or potentially maybe an Asian league?
The Angels didn’t think that, idiot Dipoto did.
And Dipoto continues to haunt the Angels….
As a Yankees fan, I will never forget about Leonardo Molina, another Cuban baseball player, because he was supposed to be a superstar yet he has been absolute garbage every year in the Minor Leagues and that will never change. No wonder why he has never been at a higher level than high A.
And now Seattle (Dipoto) will sign Baldoquin.
Drafting and projections of talent is not an exact science. Has been that way forever. No one is to blame.
You’re correct that drafting is still a crap-shoot, but the idea of investing $8M in Baldoquin knowing it would limit the draft options in later years indicates they felt he would be the next power-hitting SS star. Not merely a good player, but a star.
In that regard, there is blame to be assigned, because they bet 4 years of international signings on a single player. Baldoquin ate his way into being a 3B (which often happens when players from poor countries get access to US food abundance), but couldn’t hit the baseball in any position he was placed. His talent was horribly miscalculated by Dipoto and his scouting staff.