The Orioles have announced a deal that will send a pair of 2014-15 international bonus slots to the Astros. Baltimore will pick up left-hander Chris Lee in return.
Houston will pick up the 46th and 76th overall slots, per Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter). That delivers an additional $391.5K and $264.3K, respectively, to the Astros’ international coffers for the current July 2 signing season, which is obviously nearing a close.
The addition boosts an already league-leading $5MM+ total allocation. Baltimore had a total of about $2.25MM to work with in the present signing period before today’s move.
The Astros have reportedly signed several seven-figure players, including Ronny Rafael, Franklin Perez, and Miguel Sierra. Presumably, the extra space will allow the team to add a few extra players or to avoid some penalties for any overages already incurred.
Lee, 22, has yet to move past the low-A level in the Astros organization, though Baseball America rated him Houston’s 24th-best prospect before the 2014 season. He worked to a 3.66 ERA over 113 innings last year, but posted just 6.0 K/9 against 4.1 BB/9. In Lee’s 30 2/3 frames this time around, he has a more promising 7.0 K/9 versus 2.9 BB/9, though he is running a slightly higher earned run average (4.11).
Luhnow continues to stock the system, and parts with talent which is marginal in the Astros system but good in comparison to others.
I saw Quad Cities play on Saturday evening. Best team by record in all of professional baseball. Good team for sure… One surefire hitter they took 36th overall out of Univ of Virginia. They’re coaching winning baseball…those guys don’t swing at bad pitches.
Nine figure?
Typo. Fixed.
I read that too quickly. I thought for a second the Astros were bringing Carlos Lee back into the organization.
Better than me thinking they were bringing in the Cliff Lee for a second.
Can someone explained to me the why does it matter the slots are numbers?
Each of the slots come with a predetermined amount that is permitted to be spent on the player signed. It’s similar to the amateur draft that takes place every spring.
The Orioles keep making one bad move after another….
What was there bad move this time ? Never satisfied people .