The Pirates and Blue Jays are bidding on Mexican pitching prospect Luis Heredia, according to Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. A source tells Kovacevic that the Blue Jays offered the tall 15-year-old right-hander $2.8MM and the Pirates offered $2.5MM. The international signing period opens today, but Heredia cannot sign until August 16th of this year, when he turns 16.
Any teams interested in Heredia will have to negotiate with Veracruz, the Mexican team that currently owns his rights. Veracruz will keep three quarters of the bonus Heredia receives and controls the prospect’s future to a considerable extent.
The Yankees have also scouted Heredia, but the Pirates have been watching him for two years and are closer to the pitcher than any other team. Back in May, the Dodgers, Giants, Rangers and Mariners also appeared to have interest. The Pirates and Blue Jays have both scouted and invested in international prospects aggressively in recent years.
I guess this signing all comes down to $ entirely. Veracruz won’t exactly care which organization will offer him the best development oportunities.
Addittionally can Heredia come to an agreement now and sign when he turns 16? Or would can team officially come to an agreement prior?
We really need an international draft, enough of this crap
Yeah, it’s a real shame lower payroll teams don’t have a chance to sign these guys. I mean, all I hear are Yankees Red Sox Yankees. If only teams looking to build from within, such as the Blue Jays and Pirates, had a reasonable chance of signing these guys.
They do. The Blue Jays signed Adeiny Hechavarria earlier this year, who is a highly touted Cuban SS. I’d say they have a chance at this guy too. The Pirates and the Blue Jays have nothing in common, other than they’re both in the MLB.
where are you getting that from?
(Sarcasm, by the way, since it was apparently not obvious at all)
I really need an international house of pancakes.
I wonder if the Pirates will pay me to videotape the local teeball games.
The Pirates better sign this guy. They always talk about flooding the organization with talent, but they never do anything when it comes to top international free agents, other than Sano last year.
Starling Marte?Anyway, if the Bucs can’t get this kid, I wonder if they could just spend that money on trying to sign both Taillon and Allie? I know the budgets are completely separate, but money is money.I hate to think about dream scenarios, but how great would it be if the Pirates were able to add three arms to the systems like Taillon, Allie, and Heredia in the same year? GET IT DONE, NEIL.
I agree with signing Taillon/Allie as MUSTS. But one HUGE problem I have is our lack of power production in our minor league system…period. The Pirates made absolutely NO attempt to address this in the draft this year, so I’m hoping they attempt to sign some bats at the 3B/LF/RF positions. Go look at our minor league system…other than Alvarez…there is NO power down there!
Jays have tons of pitching but you can never have enough. It would be great if AA can sign him.