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Red Sox In Serious Talks With Cuban SS

The Red Sox are in serious talks to sign Cuban shortstop Jose Iglesias for about $8MM, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com. No deal is complete, but Heyman's sources are optimistic that the sides will agree. Iglesias, who is listed as 19, defected from Cuba last year. Scouts rave about Iglesias' defense, comparing him to defensive whiz Ozzie Smith. In spite of his "deluxe" hands and arm, some question how much he'll hit. 

However, Kiley McDaniel of Baseball Prospectus wrote last month that most scouts believe Iglesias will hit enough to be a major league regular. While his hitting "leaves a bit to be desired," McDaniel confirms that Iglesias has unusually impressive defensive skills.

It's also worth noting that as recently as a couple weeks ago the Yankees were mentioned constantly as a possible suitor for the young infielder.


Comments

Would this be for this year? or would he be considered as a prospect?

midtown what did you expect? They gave up an ace they knew how good he was.

Didn't that trade help pave the way for 1 or 2 world series championships?

Good point but we never would have won the world series without Beckett and Mike Lowell in 2007.

The Hanley/Beckett deal was a win for both teams, Sox in the present and Marlins in the future.


Beckett led them to another WS, and Hanley is the 2nd best player (pujols) in the game, and will continue to get better.

*Beckett & Lowell

Alvarez? He was drafted by the Pirates 1 or 2 years ago

People always seem to reference that trade as a loss for the Sox, but I really don't understand that. I'm a huge fan of Hanley Ramirez, but I think that even with the benefit of hindsight, they still make that deal.

"None of them will ever replace Hanley Ramirez."

I love how everyone is sooo in love with Hanley Ramirez. He's not the second coming of Cal Ripken, Jr. people. Yet!

He's a great player so far, but he's only played three years in the majors. He hasn't even shown constant improvement from year-to-year, except in the power numbers.

Before we go reserving a plaque in Cooperstown for this kid, let's remember all the "great" players to fail over the past hundred years.

Look at players like Mark Whiten or Kerry Wood. All the talent in the world, but injuries and inconsistent play led to sub-par or average MLB careers. It wasn't that they suddenly lost their talent, it is just VERY difficult to maintain that high level of excellence over a twenty+ year career.

So hold onto his halo for another ten years or so until he's actually earned it. Okay?

"Alvarez? He was drafted by the Pirates 1 or 2 years ago"

He was drafted by the Pirates last year. Two years before he was drafted out of high school by the Sox. Not sure why it's being brought up as a loss considering Alvarez made the right choice by rejecting the Sox offer... he got a massive bonus by improving in college.


"People always seem to reference that trade as a loss for the Sox, but I really don't understand that."

Same here. I think that deal has become the quintessential definition of a win-win trade. Hanley's great and I'd love to see his bat in the Sox lineup... but Beckett/Lowell got us a ring.

The reason midtown mentioned Pedro Alvarez is the Red Sox drafted him out of high school a few years back. The sides were a fairly small amount apart and he never ended up signing. It's just another "what if?" scenario, just like "what if the sox had never traded hanley?"

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/team/draft.jsp?c_id=bos&year=2005


Round 14, Red Sox draft a kid named Pedro M Alverez. The same PEdro M Alvarez the Pirates drafted 3 years later.

Beat to the answer. Oh well.

That really could have been one of the most amazing draft years for a team, ever... Ellsbury, Lowrie, Buchholz, Bowden are all contributing or ready to contribue at the major league level. Mark Wagner and Luis Exposito are still promising catching prospects. Allan Dykstra, Jason Castro and Pedro Alvarez all went on to be drafted in the first round in 2008. Talk about quality talent evaluation.

This guy soounds like Rey Ordonez.

XCal1ber, you're insane to compare Mark Whiten or Kerry Wood to Hanley Ramirez. Mark Whiten was never a valuable major league player at all until his age 27 season. Kerry Wood was very good, but more talented than great, and was blown out by Dusty Baker before he could show longevity or improvement. Ramirez has been one of the handful of best and most productive position players in the majors as a 23, 24, and 25 year old. And his age 22 season was pretty damn nice too. Ramirez is playing at a hall of fame level--an inner circle hall of fame level, and while it's too early to guarantee anything, comparing him to Mark Whiten is stupid.

Also, Alvarez wasn't as close to signing with the Sox as people are making it sound. He and his family were pretty set on Vanderbilt.

And am I the only one who thinks Iglesias sounds troublingly like Rey Ordonez?

Even if he was a second coming of Ordonez --a true great in the field-- would you really have a preference for that over a guy who could hit .270 and ten hr's and field competently?
I'm a bit surprised they would pay that kind of cash when they just drafted a SS in '08 and followed that up with their top signing in the the DR and another high draft this year in the kid from MS.

Also the Cubans haven't exactly made their presence known the last ten years.
The signing looks high risk.

"In spite of his "deluxe" hands and arm, some question how much he'll hit."

Just what is it with Boston and shortstops? Last I knew it was still catch the ball and hit the ball, not catch the ball and ......?......

Another 8 million dollar 'What the f...?".

I would be shocked if the Red Sox actually pay this guy $8M. It sounds like a con job to get Cashman to fork out needlessly huge bucks for someone who can't hit.

So if they say that the left handed from Cuba is 21 when he really is 26. I guess this guy is 24-25?

"Yes, Beckett and Lowell helped the Sox win another World Series. Still, it would have been nice to see Pedro Alvarez and Hanley Ramirez covering the left side of the infield in 2011."

Why would it have been nice? I'll take the World Series title. Having Hanley Ramirez would not guarantee anything. Having a single great player does not make a team great. The Red Sox had haf a century worth of Hall of Famers in LF and never won a single title with any of them.

Hanley is like Nomar Garciaparra with less defense and more stolen bases. Nomar didn't lead the Sox to any titles, either....

"...$8 million to control a guy for six years isn't a bad deal considering that the Red Sox currently have zero promotable middle infielders at either the AAA or AA levels."

But repeatedly signing yawn-level prospects right out of the box is exactly why Boston is in that position. For whatever reason Sox scouting and player development have morphed into full snakebit mode when it comes to drafting SSs. For a topnotch franchise it's a little embarrassing...and probably annoying as he!! for them.

To put 8M into perspective for a guy that has never played head to head in a real professional league:

8M is almost as much as the Sox last year spent on the entire draft, when they got 5 signability guys that dropped and they snapped up in lower rounds. That 8M could and maybe should go to Madison Younginer, Barandon Kline, Alex Hassan, Jason Thompson and Kendal Volz, who have been extensively scouted and most importantly the TRUE ages are known. 1-2M? sure, but more than thet.. Let him walk on by.

BTW.. Congratulations Minnesota Twins for grabbing Max Kepler, have not seen it posted here, but he chose them over Boston yesterday and signed with the Twins.

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