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Red Sox Agree To Sign Dominican Prospect Mercedes

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | March 16, 2012 at 12:36pm CDT

The Red Sox have agreed to sign Dominican right-hander Simon Mercedes to a deal including an $800K bonus, Ben Badler of Baseball America reports. For the agreement to become official, Mercedes must pass MLB’s investigation into his age, identity and visa.

Mercedes formerly presented himself as two years younger and went by the name of Jeffrey Tapia, so he has a history of identity issues. He agreed to a $400K deal with the Giants last offseason, but the agreement disintegrated following an MLB investigation and he was declared ineligible to sign for one year. The ban expired Wednesday, meaning the 20-year-old was again eligible to sign. 

The right-hander stands 6’4” and his fastball ranges from 92-96 mph. Scouts say he has an average to above-average breaking ball, Badler reports. He has the potential to start in the Major Leagues.

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27 Comments

  1. Jj Byrnes

    13 years ago

    If they allow this through, then the league should also allow Rafael Depula’s deal to pass. 

    Reply
    • mainesox

      13 years ago

      Isn’t DePaula just waiting for a visa?

      Reply
      • Jj Byrnes

        13 years ago

        not sure, but this sounds like the same exact situation. 

        Reply
        • mainesox

          13 years ago

          Yeah, I just found a post on River Ave Blues about him by Mike Axisa that says DePaula is just waiting for the Gov to okay him for a visa.

          The back story does sound the same (they both lied about their name and age, and they were both ineligible to sign for a year because of it), but it sounds like DePaula has actually already been cleared by MLB (but not the government yet) where Mercedes has not (but is expected to?).

          Reply
          • Yuyun Santos

            13 years ago

            Mercedes , no have issues with nobody , he uses his real name. the usa goverment issue his visa , and the other thing is travel tomorrow  to Port St lucie if that make the Red Sox fans  happy.

            Reply
      • jjs91

        13 years ago

        Visa first and then mlb will do whatever. Though panguina didnt get approved by mlb and i think he had a visa

        Reply
        • mainesox

          13 years ago

          According to what I’ve read about it DePaula has already been cleared by MLB and the only thing he needs to make the deal official is a visa, so I assume the same would/could/should apply to Mercedes.

          Reply
          • jjs91

            13 years ago

            Looks like ur right from what i have been reading you need approval from the mlb before you can get your visa, this might be closer to panguina than depaula

            Reply
  2. formerdraftpick 2

    13 years ago

    I hope for that price, Mercedes came with 20″ rims.

    Reply
    • MB923

      13 years ago

      92-96 MPH is pretty good speed for Mercedes. 

      Reply
      • Yuyun Santos

        13 years ago

         this is just the beginning

        Reply
  3. dc21892

    13 years ago

    Sounds good to me.

    Reply
  4. tesseract

    13 years ago

    So he lied about his age and identity twice and signed for more money than was originally offered. Shame on MLB and its clubs. And then they wonder why there is a lot of Latin players who change their age

    Reply
    • mainesox

      13 years ago

      He has changed his name and age once, not twice, and there is a history of deals like this being approved (see the aforementioned deal the Yankees have with DePaula).  Changing his age didn’t help him anyway, it showed that he was older than previously thought (less time to develop and less projected room for development) so he likely got less than he could have if his original listed age was correct (he’d be 18 instead of 20 and would have more time to develop and more room for developmental growth).

      Reply
      • George Yang

        13 years ago

        his point was that he was only offered a 400k deal last time around, but this time his bonus alone is 800k.  Yes, the Red Sox can offer more money than the Giants could, but why weren’t the Red Sox signing him last time around?

        Reply
        • mainesox

          13 years ago

          Maybe because they had an idea that his name/age weren’t correct, maybe because the Giants signed him before the Sox had made up their mind about him, maybe because the Sox signed 24 international free agents last year and he didn’t fit into their budget.

          I don’t know what the specific reason was, but it’s really kind of irrelevant when the original post is implying that Mercedes getting more money after being found out is the reason that they lie about their age, that’s just nonsense.

          Reply
          • tesseract

            13 years ago

             I’m not saying that he got more money because he lied. But think about it…. does it make sense that he lied, was banned for a year and came back and signed for more money? My point is that this looks really bad, and could encourage young latin players to keep lying about their age. Simple.

            Reply
            • mainesox

              13 years ago

              The fact that he got caught and had to wait a year to sign should discourage them from lying.  The fact that he signed for more money and the fact that he lied about his age are unrelated.

              Reply
              • tesseract

                13 years ago

                 Roberto Hernandez (fausto carmona) lied. And his contract is getting revised because he should get penalized and get less money. And he is a major leaguer. I know it’s a money business but mlb teams shouldn’t reward liars and offer them more money after a suspension like this. And you are right, the punishment should have been greater

                Reply
                • mainesox

                  13 years ago

                  I don’t have a problem with a team offering a contract to a player who has served his penalty. 

                  And Carmona is getting his contract re-worked because he had already been signed and in baseball for years before he got caught, it’s not like they could suspend him for a year (they could but it would be as much of a punishment for the team who is presumably innocent); with a player who has yet to sign with a team there is no contract to re-work (I suppose they could have let the Giants re-work the contract but that would have been an even lighter punishment), so they punish them by not letting them sign for a year.  But once the penalty is served I have no problem with teams offering him what they think he is worth to sign him.

                  Again, like I said, if there is anything to complain about it’s the length of the punishment, not a team signing him. 

                  ADD: For what it’s worth Speier wrote an article an hour or so ago about how the previous VP of International Scouting in Boston refused to sign players who had lied about their age, so a year ago Boston would have refused to sign him at all.

                  Reply
                • mainesox

                  13 years ago

                  I don’t have a problem with a team offering a contract to a player who has served his penalty. 

                  And Carmona is getting his contract re-worked because he had already been signed and in baseball for years before he got caught, it’s not like they could suspend him for a year (they could but it would be as much of a punishment for the team who is presumably innocent); with a player who has yet to sign with a team there is no contract to re-work (I suppose they could have let the Giants re-work the contract but that would have been an even lighter punishment), so they punish them by not letting them sign for a year.  But once the penalty is served I have no problem with teams offering him what they think he is worth to sign him.

                  Again, like I said, if there is anything to complain about it’s the length of the punishment, not a team signing him. 

                  ADD: For what it’s worth Speier wrote an article an hour or so ago about how the previous VP of International Scouting in Boston refused to sign players who had lied about their age, so a year ago Boston would have refused to sign him at all.

                  Reply
            • mainesox

              13 years ago

              If you want to complain about something complain about the relatively weak punishment, not the amount he signed for after serving the required punishment.

              Reply
        • Yuyun Santos

          13 years ago

           cheaply refuse sign guys with problems of identity

          Reply
      • Yuyun Santos

        13 years ago

         Is not the same history

        Reply
  5. tesseract

    13 years ago

     In fact, I am positive that this deal will not be approved by MLB

    Reply
  6. Yuyun Santos

    13 years ago

     My people , he didn’t sign with Jeffrey Tapia name , he sign with his real name (Simon Mercedes) the mlb accuse him of use the other name in tryouts (Jeffrey Tapia) but later he said the true about his name and the Giants sign him , then MLB suspended him for use in tryouts the other name , he doesn’t have problems with visa  because he uses his real name and the USA issue his visa and he land to USA tomorrow.

    Reply
  7. Yuyun Santos

    13 years ago

    This guy dont have any problems , the de paula case is different. 

    Reply

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