Lucius Fox, an 18-year-old shortstop and native of the Bahamas, has been declared a free agent by Major League Baseball, according to Fangraphs’ Kiley McDaniel (on Twitter). Fox is a rather interesting case, as he attended American Heritage High School in Florida but moved back to the Bahamas recently and petitioned to be declared an international free agent rather than be subject to the amateur draft in June. As McDaniel has noted recently, the switch-hitting Fox should be expected to land a seven-figure bonus and likely would’ve been a Top 50 pick had he been draft-eligible. Fox projects to stick at shortstop and has a feel for hitting from both sides of the plate, per McDaniel. He’ll likely wait until July 2 to sign.
A few more notes on some new potential international free agents…
- Cuban right-hander Yaisel Sierra has left the island and is attempting to establish residency in the Dominican Republic, tweets MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez. The 23-year-old Sierra has a career 3.74 ERA with 6.3 K/9 against 5.1 BB/9 in 238 innings over his past four seasons in Cuba’s Serie Nacional. The righty has spent five total years in pro ball in Cuba, thereby making him exempt from international spending limitations should he be declared a free agent by Major League Baseball.
- Center fielder Yordanis Linares has also left Cuba, and he tells Sanchez that he’s looking to establish residency in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Costa Rica or Nicaragua. Though Linares is 26 years old, he lacks the professional experience to be an unrestricted international free agent, so he, too, will be subject to spending pools. Linares left the game of baseball in his teens and spent two years with the Cuban military before returning to the game at the age of 22. He’s a career .318 hitter with 15 homers in 191 Serie Nacional games, Sanchez writes. Linares seems unlikely to be declared a free agent in the current international signing period..
Lucius Fox, eh?
If the baseball thing doesn’t work out at least we know he’ll have a successful future in technology.
The whole system is a joke what If a guy was born here went to USA schools then went to live in Cuba or wherever? Dumb whole system is a joke and needs to be fixed.
It says he is a native of the Bahamas.
That is crazy. I wonder if other players will start moving out of the country to bypass the draft. Not a bad business strategy for the player.
Only if they are not American (or Canadian). Fox is a Bahamian citizen, yes he went to HS here (not sure yet of the details) but since he moved back to the Bahamas he can be (if MLB agrees by the rules) and was declared a Int’l FA.
No not at all. Nba players play a year, skip college get paid then get drafted to nba.
Are you arguing for 18 year olds Americans being allowed to spend 5 years in Cuba being paid dollars a month? Nothing is stopping U.S. kids from signing a player friendly deal in the NPB with opt outs like Otani. You don’t think a NPB team would meet Strasburg’s rookie deal of $15M/4 years. The Rakuten Eagles have given Andruw Jones $7M for his last 2 seasons. The system could be leveraged against itself here too. No one forces baseball players to play in MLB affiliated leagues.
But Cuban born players don’t have to play in japan to get that deal. Why dhod USA born players have to?
Do Canadians count as international free agents?
No. Neither do Puerto Ricans.
I don’t care how good of a player Lucius Fox is — the Pirates should sign him since he is tight with Batman, er… Bruce Wayne
Shhhhhhhh
Friedman couldn’t get Moncada to wait until July but switch hitting SS Fox would be a nice fallback.
Why wouldn’t the Yankees or Red Sox attempt to land Fox? He would be a good pick-up for them. I mean, why stop now if you are either club?
Lucius Fox? He’s gonna be signing with Batman.
You’re darn right he is
Matt Harvey approves