TODAY: MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports some additional details on the situation. San Francisco’s claim to a signing is based upon “a series of texts and emails” that were exchanged with BHSC. The Giants filed paperwork with the league, per the report, but it appears that Martinez has yet to sign anything with the club. Chicago, meanwhile, struck its deal with Martinez’s Dominican representatives.
YESTERDAY: The controversy surrounding Cuban center fielder Eddy Julio Martinez is now in the hands of Major League Baseball officials, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. MLB is working to decide whether Martinez, 20, will become property of the Giants or Cubs and hopes to have a ruling by the end of the week, per Heyman.
One of the most sought-after prospects on this year’s international free agent market, Martinez agreed to a $2.5MM signing bonus with the Giants about two weeks ago. Giants general manager Bobby Evans publicly acknowledged the agreement, though the team never made an official announcement of the signing. Shortly after, ESPN’s Keith Law reported that Martinez would not be signing with the Giants and remained on the free agent market.
Following that unusual sequence of events, Martinez reportedly agreed to sign with the Cubs for a larger bonus of $3MM. However, since that time, Evans has come out and said that the Giants are still in the running for the highly touted Martinez.
According to Heyman, the heart of the issue here is that Martinez has multiple representatives negotiating on his behalf. While he is a client of MLBPA certified agents Rick Thurman and Rafael Nieves of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, Martinez also has multiple “buscones,” or “street agents” as Heyman terms them. Multiple people are laying claim to the role of agent for Martinez and, as such, there’s uncertainty regarding the validity of Martinez’s deal with the Giants.
It’s not known which parties negotiated which deal, but MLB is working to determine whether or not the agreement with the Giants was binding. That deal was struck before the agreement with the Cubs, and the Giants, according to Heyman, believed it to be binding at the time it was made.
Martinez, a right-handed hitting center fielder, draws praise for his power and speed, though some scouts believe his pop will only translate to doubles power in the end, and he’s more of a corner outfielder than a true center fielder. Those that are more bullish have likened his tools to those of Andruw Jones, though that’s a lofty comparison and obviously a best-case scenario as opposed to a likely outcome. Both the Giants and Cubs have already incurred the maximum penalty level for exceeding their allotted international bonus pools. That means that either would pay a 100 percent luxury tax on Martinez’s signing bonus, so he’d actually cost the Giants $5MM and the Cubs $6MM in total.
So mlb decides now…. Wow
Brings back memories of Lindros with the Flyers and Rangers from the 90’s.
As a Giants fan, I say let him go to the Cubs. Obviously Eddy has many outside sources telling him what to do…
Pablo was that way as well. We don’t need another Pablo.
Nah, we don’t want another Pablo. Who would want an All Star who helped us win 3 World Series titles anyway?
This is just another example of why the international signing process needs to be reworked. Because teams can’t throw money at he draft anymore they throw it at international free agents. Now that Cuba can send their players north MLB should add all international free agents to the first year player draft unless they are over the age of 26. Right now the Dodgers, Cubs, Yankees and Red Sox are throwing crazy amounts of money at these kids and the rest of the teams are happy with a couple of the lower group of guys left. Also I’m a Cubs fan so I know that this process has worked in my teams favor but I’m in favor of competitive balance.
No one is exempt from the IFA rules. Spend up large, fine, but pay the price – ie capped in the next period. Doesn’t matter how much money you have then, when you can’t spend more than a handful.
International signing does potentially need a review and rework, no doubt, there’s room for improvement. Filtering the players through the already absurd draft system though? That’s a backward step. There’s “competitive balance”, then there’s “market restriction”.
The thing I find most interesting is that his Dominican reps got him an offer worth a fair bit more than his certified agents.