The Blue Jays announced the signings of seven international free agents: Roberto Osuna, Wuilmer Becerra, Jesus Gonzalez, Manuel Cordova, Alberto Tirado, Jairo Labourt, and Yeyfry Del Rosario.
Osuna, the 16-year-old nephew of Antonio, tossed 19 2/3 innings in the Mexican League this year. The Mexican righty was one of the top July 2nd pitching prospects this year, wrote Baseball America's Ben Badler.
Becerra is a "speedy shortstop who projects as an outfielder," wrote Badler. The 17-year-old comes out of Venezuela.
The bonuses on these seven are not yet known, but the Jays signed Domincan Dawel Lugo for $1.3MM in July. Based on BA's estimates, it's likely Osuna and Becerra received more. The Blue Jays continue to be aggressive in the international market, having signed Adeiny Hechavarria, Adonis Cardona, and others last year.
Be sure to tell your Spanish-speaking friends about MLBTR's sister site, Rumores de Béisbol, where we have human translations of key MLBTR posts as well as the original Hits Latinos series.
Had heard the Jays were going to sign Osuna. Very happy to see it finalized!
Where do these guys go to play ball now?
the sandlot
Some played in the Mexican League with Jake Taylor after he had problems with his knees..
Lol. Nice one.
The Jays are going to need another MiLB affiliate team, the rate guys are being signed.
AA is the man!!
That list is a mouthful. Crikey!
Bye Tyler Beede Hello 7 International free agents!
I love how the Jays sign the 4th, 5th, 6th, 21st, and 33rd best international prospects according to Baseball America, and people want to talk about how bad the Jays draft was because they didn’t give Beede $3.5 million.
The talent in the system right now is getting ridiculous.
They’ll be lucky if one of those players makes the MLB team. Signing international free agents is even more of a crap shoot than drafting high school players.
Can you support that statement?
I’d also like to point out that they didn’t find the best IFA’s but rather the ones BA thought would be the most expensive. Maybe that list aligns, maybe not. Either way I’m happy with the haul.
We knew about all of those a while ago…Labourt was signed I March I thought. Dawel Lugo should be on that list too. Great to see Osuna added to the fold. Wonder how much his bonus was…
Huge haul by the Jays. Looks like AA spent another 10 mill. plus on prospects….Osuna is the real deal and played in the Mexican league-similar to the AAA PCL when he was 15..
So did Anthopoulos just purchase Venezuela and the Dominican Republic?
traded Wil Ledezma for them.
I didnt know the Jays actually signed Cardona officially, but great moves. Heccha is actually playing great in AAA now.
They signed Cardona last year. He’s been dominating the GCL at 17. Pretty exciting.
I wouldn’t say he was dominating, more like respectable.
4.55 ERA, 31.2 IP, 31 H, 17 R, 16 ER, 12 BB, 35 K.
Rumour hast it, in México (where Osuna is from), that he got signed to $4 millions.
Rumour hast it, in México (where Osuna is from), that he got signed to $4 millions.
Ya. I heard about that $4M rumour for Osuna a few weeks ago.
If you follow prospects and are a Jays fan, this is a very exciting time.
Yeah, as far as i’ve heard from people ‘in the known’, the deal was reached weeks ago, when the BJays sent people to México, but for some reason they waited until the Mexican League season was over to either finalize the deal or announce it, pretty good pick, the guy couldn’t pitch all that well vs the league BUT he is a teenager, and he happens to throw heath (well above 95mph constantly) and for his age he is tall (6’2″ at age 16), so, Jays have a diamond in the rough there, pretty pretty exciting to say the least (his dad and his uncle were flame-throwers back in the 1990s until the mid 2000’s).