The Nationals announced today that they’ve traded minor league right-hander Ramses Rosario to the Red Sox in exchange for the No. 66 international bonus slot. That slot is valued at $327,700, per Baseball America.
Rosario, 19, was signed by the Nats in the 2012-13 international signing period and has worked exclusively in the Dominican Summer League from 2013-15. He’s posted a combined 4.11 ERA in 72 1/3 innings across 34 games (31 relief appearances) in that time, averaging 6.2 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9. Rosario did not rank among Washington’s top prospects per Baseball America, MLB.com or Fangraphs.
The Nationals’ $1,985,400 international bonus pool (also per BA) was the second-smallest in the Majors this year. The additional $328K will allow boost that figure to $2.31MM, which is more than enough to give them some breathing room to reach additional agreements beyond Dominican outfielder Juan Soto, who reportedly has a $1.5MM bonus agreed upon with the team.
The Red Sox, on the other hand, are restricted from signing an international amateur for more than $300K after absolutely shattering last year’s budget to sign Cuban phenom Yoan Moncada, so it makes sense to see them trading their slots.
I’m surprised by this. I thought for sure the Red Sox would have been able to sign another top 20 prospect for their $300k max. I’ve heard Venezuela is full of 16 year old baseball players who will forgo life changing money just for the chance to play for the Red Sox organization. Obviously a missed opportunity by the Sox here.
Blame his agent, not the Red Sox. More than likely a “package deal” happened.
Whoever is at fault, it feels very shady and against the spirit of the rule. If it truly is the agent’s fault, MLB should bar the agent for not acting in the best interest of his child aged client and allow the player to become a free agent again with a new agent who is looking out for this minor. If it’s the Red Sox who are making back room deals, then MLB should fine them and bar the Red Sox from the international market for the next two years. Either way, there is no reason the #15 or so ranked prospect by multiple sources should be signing for $300k. No other player in MLB’s top 30 signed for less than $700k and 26 or 27 of the top 30 signed for $1,000,000+.
I understand what you are saying, but this is common practice during the IFA period, especially in Venezuela. There have been quite a few articles written upon it in the pass few weeks, and they are worth looking at if you haven’t read them already. More than likely, his agent overvalued the market causing this to happen. His agent had another top client sign for more than 1MM, so his agent wasn’t a nobody.
Ever been to latin America and other Caribbean countries? If so would find that most anything is for sale for a price.. Starting with justice and anything legal.
Officials in many rural towns expect payouts/bribes, some countries worse than others, but for people that have never left the US it’s hard to explain the corruption that goes on. Probably not as bad (I hope) that went on 40y ago when last was around those areas, but it was on a pretty vast scale then.
Rosario is 19. That’s long in the tooth to be in DOSL. He’s also a reliever with a 9.00 ERA and more walks than strikeouts. Can you give up less?