The Braves officially signed 18-year-old Dominican shortstop Edward Salcedo to a deal worth $1.6MM today. He was considered one of the best prospects in Latin America back in 2008, however MLB launched an investigation to confirm his age and identity at the Braves’ behest.
Salcedo’s birthday was recently established as July 30, 1991. Originally represented by Scott Boras, Salcedo is now represented by Edgar Mercedes, who said the Braves were his client’s first option. Reports in 2008 indicated that Boras was seeking upwards of $5MM for Salcedo. Atlanta recently applied for a visa to allow him to visit their Spring Training complex.
Atlanta considered Salcedo the equivalent of a high first round pick, which is good because they forfeited their 2010 first rounder to sign Billy Wagner and didn’t receive compensation picks for Rafael Soriano. Already standing 6′-3″, Salcedo is considered to be one of the best offensive players to come out of the Dominican in quite some time, however there are some questions about his ability to remain at short.
The AP first reported that Salcedo’s age had been confirmed (thanks to Nick Collias for the translation), and MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reported that the two sides were near an agreement. Dave O’Brien of The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported the terms.
Mike Axisa contributed to this post.
