The 2023 international signing period opens on January 15, as the new collective bargaining agreement has formalized the mid-January start date that has been in place for the last two years. Previously opening on July 2 in pre-pandemic years, the 2020-21 int’l signing period was moved to January 2021 once COVID-19 overhauled the baseball calendar, and for at least the length of the current CBA, the international signing window will last from January 15 to December 15 of each year.
Because the MLB Players Association continued to resist the league’s desires for an international draft system, the previous rules regarding international signings remain in place. All 30 teams have a set bonus pool for international signings that cannot be exceeded, though signing of $10K or less don’t count against a team’s pool cap. Clubs are once again allowed to trade bonus pool slots, as trades of pool money had been prohibited in the last two pandemic-impacted draft pool classes.
Here is what each team has available to spend in the new int’l signing window, with a tip of the hat to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez:
$6,366,900: Athletics, Brewers, Mariners, Marlins, Rays, Reds, Tigers, Twins …..These were the teams who had picks in Competitive Balance Round-B of the 2022 draft.
$5,825,500: Diamondbacks, Guardians, Orioles, Padres, Pirates, Rockies, Royals …..These teams had picks in Competitive Balance Round-A of the 2022 draft.
$5,284,000: Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, Cardinals, Cubs, Giants, Mets, Nationals, White Sox, Yankees
$4,644,000: Angels, Phillies, Red Sox…..Each of these teams surrendered $500K from their bonus pools because they signed a qualifying offer-rejecting free agent in the 2021-22 offseason. Los Angeles signed Noah Syndergaard, Philadelphia signed Nick Castellanos, and Boston signed Trevor Story.
$4,144,000: Dodgers, Rangers…..These teams also signed QO-rejecting free agents during the 2021-22 offseason, as Texas took $500K penalties for both Marcus Semien and Corey Seager. Los Angeles had to give up $1MM from its pool in order to sign Freddie Freeman, as the Dodgers received double the penalty because they exceeded the luxury tax threshold in 2021.
Fingers crossed the Braves are in on Duno and Celesten
Only place Celesten is signing is Seattle. No chance “Baby Julio” is going anywhere else.
LET ME HAVE THIS!
Celesten and 3 top 30 picks in July, our farm will be top 5 again in a couple years.
Let the man dream lol
Good call Ben!
The Reds signed Duno for around 3.1 million
Celesten has already signed with the M’s for $4.9 million.
Also, Jeter Martinez. 2 of the top 50 international players available. But Celesten is the crown jewel this year.
Do these drafts really matter? I mean they can just go all out on Shim or Morales and not worry about a bunch of 50 and 45 rated guys.
There’s a lot wrong with your comment. The IFA period isn’t a draft (though I get what you mean to say.) For the most part, these deals have been agreed upon for months. I hate to break it to you, but your Rangers aren’t getting Shim or Morales, though they will sign one of Vladimir Guerrero’s sons which is cool even though he’s not highly rated.
Teams still have to field 2 DSL teams, plus it’s not like low bonus guys never pan out. Framber Valdez and Cristian Javier got $10k each and Xander Bogaerts got $6 million less in bonus money than Jose Iglesias, for example.
The top guys in the class realistically are 45-50 FV at present. Pipeline just boosts their FV to generate buzz by publicizing their ceiling since these players are so far off from the bigs, hence why only two IFAs have ever made their top-100 list directly after signing. There’ll be an adjustment to their ratings tomorrow and most of the guys on the top IFA list won’t make their team’s top 30
@degrom You, along with many fans, assume if “your” teams offers a contract, the player should sign. Hey, the amounts are similar so why not?
Maybe, and I’m just spitballing here, the player and his reps can decide where they want to sign? Like if the rangers offered 2 million and the Rays offered 2 million, I’d sign with the Rays. I would probably say to myself “the rangers aren’t very good with developing talent, and that’s me. And since I’m me, I care about my future and my career, and I want to sign with a team that helps grow my talent.”
Then I would sign with the better team. Even if they offered a few hundred thousand less.
Maybe you should care about these players because it’s not like your team has won a championship recently.
In most cases the players and their families have had relationships with the team they’re signing with since they were 14 or 15. Maybe their uncle has been given a job by the team or the team has paid for their sister’s education. It’s very rarely a “I have these offers let me pick one.” Almost never.
You’re exactly right, and I think most people think of it just like regular free agency. There’s way more to it than, say, Trea Turner having his pick of offers and just choosing the best one. You’re right that most of these deals are years in the making. The players can even train in team facilities before they sign.
Plus, these players are so young that a lot can change by the time they’re later in their development. Even whole organizations can turn over in a short amount of time, so it’s hard to avoid certain teams because they’re not good at developing talent. The Astros have been really good at developing talent in the last decade or so, and Cleveland has been great at developing pitchers in that same span. Imaging having not signed with the Astros in 2012 because you didn’t think they’d be able to develop talent.
I can tell you the Mariners are a favorite destination because of the small things, like cooking classes, nutritional training, lifestyle coaches, and money management, plus their players get to “walk” on graduation day from the Mariner high school in the D.R.
I hear they are into Walcott and one of the Guerreros, but I’d be pretty glad if they got the outfielder one. I did see Tatis Jr was 50th and guys like Devers, Ohtani, Robert, etc. exist. I don’t understand this thing of drafting 10 shortstops when you have similarly rated outfielders you can draft (a position of great need) or starters due to bullpen problems and depth reasons. Multiple sources do seem to indicate they are signing Walcott for 3+ million, though they may all be based on the same report.
Shim signed with the Pirates
Why do the Padres get a competitive balance pick? They have one of the largest payrolls in baseball.
They will not be receiving one in the 2023 draft. It is based on the 10 lowest revenue clubs and 10 smallest markets. Some teams overlap in these two categories which results in less than 20 teams get competitive balance round picks. In the 2022 draft a record 15 teams received competitive balance round picks, including the Padres. Now it is back to 14 teams for the 2023 draft since the Padres lost their pick.
Surprisingly, the Padres were a revenue sharing payee (received money) for many years and might still be one to this day.
It no longer makes sense for Padres to be receiving competitive balance picks
Or higher bonus pools for int’l free agents
It’s based off previous years, they lost their pick next year and money
$5.6 of the $5.8 million in the Padres pool is already spoken for. Tomorrow should be a happy day in San Diego.
Indeed it will be and Jan 15 2024will be too! Welcome aboard Mr. De Vries!
It never made sense for the Cardinals to get extra picks or extra money for International prospects either, but rules are rules.
No teams should receive competitive balance picks and additional money. Every team should have the same set amount of money.
Absolutely not, if the competitive advantage wasn’t given to small market teams to afford to offer more money to international players, they would never sign with the Pirates, Royals, Marlins, and Reds. There is no way for Cincinnati and Pittsburgh to win a bidding war with a top-10 payroll club.
Sure they can. Offer more money, or change direction to another top player. If every team has the same amount if money, there are automatic built in limits. If the Dodgers and the Rays have the same amount of money they will have to decide how they want to disperse the money to sign players with a set bucket. I want to reward intelligence and scouting. There needs to be penalties built in for teams that don’t spend and are gifted draft picks based on market size. A prospect may be more enamored with the Dodgers, but another might view a quicker path to the majors with the Rays.
Orioles, as well. They own 75% of MASN, that should cover things.
A lot of them in the top 15 don’t always pan out!! Mostly hype but some do but mostly the prospects in the lower half and even not even top 50 end up being better prospects
Celestin to the Mariners….Book it
Salas to the Padres, book it!?
Salas to another team in two years, book it! When Preller wants to strip the farm again for a bat or an arm to help the playoff push Salas will be the piece he sends! If Abrams becomes Jorge Mateo or better, I’m not sure Soto is worth what they gave up to get him, unless he hits like 2021 and before.
So the money teams forfeit for signing QO rejecting free agents, is that just erased from the pool?
Until there is a real international draft, this is a meaningless system to all but around 10 large market teams.
Seattle isn’t a large market and does fairly well consistently.
They have a connection to the Far East which gives them an advantage there.
What connection to the far east? Ichiro? How many Japanese etc. Have signed with other teams since then? And I’m not sure how a connection to the far east would help signing someone from the Dominican Republic?
Seattle is 15th in metro size and it’s the third richest.
Not even true. The Twins, Mariners, Orioles, Marlins, Reds and Rays are all going to sign a guy rated in the top 20. The Brewers, Pirates and Guardians have guys in the top 30. The Rays currently have one of the most hyped international prospects of the last 10 years or so on their roster.
mlb.com/pirates/news/pirates-2023-international-pr…
The Pirates have two in top 30.
Also, FWIW, people seem to think that San Diego is a “small market” just because the Pads had low payrolls for years.
It is not.
San Diego is the 8th biggest metro in the US.
Padres spending 90% on one player….and he’s worth it.
Drafts are crap shoots. Injuries play a role as do the development personnel employed by teams. Plenty of “can’t miss” prospects do, in fact, miss. Joe Adell is just a recent example.
It has been that way since the beginning of time.
Clint Hurdle was supposed to be a great five tool player. Billy Beane was supposed to be better than Darryl Strawberry.
The other side is true too. Some of the best players ever were undrafted or taken in double digit rounds.
Hope the Red Sox get that Estonian second baseman.
Story the gift that keeps on taking.
Philadelphia Phillies have signed 20-year-old fireballer Pan Wen-Hui. A signing press conference is scheduled on January 16.
As per Liberty Sports, the signing bonus is around 400,000 USD.
And they announced Jesus Caba (#13) – potentially a 5 tool SS and switch-hitter. $3.1M
Twins invested a lot in the foreign market and those players were overmatched and got worse at AAA.
It makes zero sense that, unlike every other major sport, these players don’t need to go undrafted first. A convoluted system created to justify the exploitation of young ball players in poor countries. Rich keep getting richer while holding their thumb over poor players and teams. Capitalism unchecked. This entire system blows.
I disagree to a point. Many of these players are taken out of poverty and go to school get training and live a much better life. They get a HS education which is like a college degree here. Maybe better. All those players do not work out so they have a chance to improve their families future. Like said above they also pay for family education or hire family.
Are these players obligated to sign with that team? No but if they are treated correctly they usually will. If they go to the draft what happens to these training facilities? Do the kids lose out because teams will not want to put all that money into academy’s with no or little return? I like the idea about the draft but there has to be a way for MLB to keep these academy’s open
To a point…you are correct. There are also tons of flaws within the system, but there are clearly some real benefits as well.
Well put compassrose, I agree but the system with backroom handshake deal with a trainer that benefits(most of the time but not all the trainer) is what I want gone. That doesn’t necessarily mean a draft per se. But if it were a draft style just take the number of players signed from the last ten years, on avg, and then add 2-3 rounds or so to cover the overlooked, or scorned by the trainer types that got black balled. Keep the academies going in hopes of the undrafted getting seen as well as training the guys picked before they hit the states. One rule should be anyone under 18 needs to go to the academy and that in it of itself will keep that system going and the drafted players will need to play against someone so theres the appeal for the undrafted. Play well and you could get signed after the fact as well as still enjoy the academies perks. I’m just spitballing here…
Capitalism unchecked? That doesn’t exist in America. Real unchecked capitalism would be great. Crony capitalism is the issue.
I always love the free market / “real unchecked capitalism trope”. And the best part about your claim is that a totally free market would only end up with the peak of what you claim the be the biggest issue…crony capitalism.
No one alive has ever lived in a fully free market, capitalistic society.
The measuring stick is figuring out how to allow business to flourish while still protecting society with restraints from the worst of the excesses, and it is always a compromise.
Padres will probably pick a Young Catcher -Salas and spend Most of their $$$ pool.
A lot of misses on these lists if you go back 10 years to 4 years ago and most of these prospects do not even make the majors. And getting angry over not getting a specific prospect does no good. Because guys like Ronald Acuna Jr.were signed for only 10 thousand dollars so it’s really a crap shoot. What counts is player development and these players work ethic.