9:55pm: Sanchez provides another pair of updates (via Twitter), reporting that Puig has established residency in Mexico and MLB's investigation of the papers is believed to be complete. An issue with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is keeping Puig from free agency. It is expected to be resolved by July 2, and possibly even as soon as tomorrow.
June 25, 6:40pm: Sanchez tweets that Puig has not yet filed his Mexican residency papers to Major League Baseball. Those papers will need to be authenticated before Puig can be granted free agency, and the authentication process can take a week or longer according to Sanchez.
June 19: Cuban outfielder Yasiel Puig aims to become a free agent soon so that he can sign with an MLB team by July 2, when the spending restrictions in baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement take effect, MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports. Puig has defected from Cuba and is in the process of establishing permanent residency in Mexico. Agent Jaime Torres says he hopes MLB will declare the 21-year-old a free agent once his residency has been established.
"We should all be on the same page by July 2nd in order to have the clubs evaluate him and sign a contract before the new rule kicks in," Torres told Sanchez.
Torres has tentatively scheduled a showcase for scouts in Mexico City later this week. Puig, a 6'3" 210 pound outfielder, has two seasons of experience in Cuba’s Serie Nacional. He’s more polished than Jorge Soler but less seasoned than Yoenis Cespedes, according to Sanchez. If MLB declares Puig a free agent in the coming days, he’ll be able to sign before July 2 and maximize his earnings.
Steve Adams contributed to this post.
Where are all these Cubans coming from?!
Cuba, I reckon.
I would assume so:)
Lol
Cuba. Lol
Good one!
Must be Mariel, the 2012 version going on.
so then maybe start him in AA or AAA and then call him up mid year?
Well if he doesn’t sign until July 2nd, by the time he gets a work visa and actually get’s here it will be mid July which will be past mid year.
Im thinking he means mid-year next year
You would think Cuba would just build a darn fence by now!! How do those rafts get so far anyway? Anyone who has seen Cast Away knows it ain’t that easy. Not trying to sound politically incorrect.
I know Cespedes was picked up on a speed boat….
and didn’t Chapman just walk out of the american hotel he was staying at for the WBC?
Don’t know about Chapman, but I know that’s what Juan-Carlos Linares did.
Mariel and a bit after.. Was on one of the USN ships that was in the carribean and picked some up escaping Cuba.. you would have been surprised at what they left in and were miles out to sea in the flimsiest of “boats”.
25 in 30′ local fishing boats for instance. Some left with just a few gallons of water on board and hadn’t had a drink for 24 hours.. Young kids on some, entire families on others. Some had people in dire need of medical aid, which was why the USN (us) and the CG had cutters patroling to pick them up at the beginning. Many were miles off course.
This was way, way before “wet foot, dry foot” policy went into effect.
I except the red sox to pass but I think the dodgers will pursue him hard
Low exceptations for the kid(?) eh?
More polished than Soler but less seasoned than Cespedes. But what’s his ceiling?
That is my question too. If his seasoning is somewhere in between but he has a AAAA upside it isn’t that interesting of a story.
Well the first line in the article is…..”The latest Cuban prospect expected to hit the market just might be the most coveted young outfielder to leave the island in the last 12 months.”
It sounds like he has quite a bit of potential. There probably haven’t been many scouts that have got a good chance to look at him. I’m sure over the next couple weeks we will be hearing a lot more about him.
I hope so. I follow prospects and potential prospects pretty closely (to me it’s as fun as following the major leagues), but I have to say I’ve never even heard of this guy.
I’m with you, Maine. I’ll be interested to hear what they have to say when a few scouting reports start to come out on him. It’s hard to tell by the article because so much of what was said is from his agent. Who of course is trying to make him sound as good as possible.
thats what I get for not reading the actual article. darn you MLBtraderumors and your easy-to-read summaries!
A lot more defectors now, wonder why???
Gotta get your money up before the new rule, I suppose.
Inspiration? Cuban baseball players want the big-time and it used to seem impossible but now that players are doing it all the time it gives them confidence.
because July 2 means their contracts will be capped at ~2MM.
Sounds like he is just going to miss the deadline.
This has Astros written all over it , especially since they couldn’t sign Hunter Virant . I think they’ll try to make a run at him and add more depth .
Wonder if he would be a Top 100 Prospect, Cubs need to replace Rizzo in the system lol… but seriously, Castro and Rizzo in MLB, Jackson and Vitters in AAA, Lake in AA, Szczur in A+, Baez in A, Soler unassigned, Almora to be signed, and hopefully we get Puig.
Rizzo and Lake are by far the least significant of those, but both have good upside, but I’m really beginning to like the Cubs system.
I’d put Rizzo ahead of Vitters and Szczur as well as Lake.
I put Rizzo ahead of them… if you meant to write Baez, then I was just going from MLB to Rookie Ball basically, based on how far in the system they were.
“Rizzo and Lake are by far the least significant of those”
I think Rizzo is a better prospect than Vitters, Szczur, and Lake.
Terrible type-o, meant Vitters and Lake haha.
Phew, that makes a lot more sense.
Any word on the workout he was supposed to do for teams? Does his Mexican citizenship need to be confirmed by MLB before he can do that?