The Braves have signed Cuban right-hander Carlos Portuondo to a contract with a $990K bonus, MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports (Twitter link). Portuondo is 28 and thus old enough to be exempt from international bonus pools. He’s likely to start the year with Atlanta’s Double-A affiliate, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets.
As per Baseball America’s Ben Badler, scouts say the 6″2, 220-pound Portuondo has a fastball in the 90-93mph range and a slider as his secondary pitch. He’ll be used out of the bullpen by the Braves, though he split time as both a starter and reliever in his native country. Portuondo posted pretty unremarkable numbers for Santiago De Cuba from 2005-14, with a 5.75 ERA, 194 strikeouts and 188 walks in 355 1/3 innings pitching in the top Cuban league.
I guess it’s safe to assume that nobody threatened to kill this guy’s agent.
A 5.75 era warrants a near-million-dollar bonus?
5.75 ERA in Cuba…. What’s that translate to a 7.50+ ERA in the majors????
well, maybe the splits show that he is much more effective as a reliever and most of his mediocrity came as a starter
Not really. He seems to be equally bad no matter when he enters the game.. Career 1.72 WHIP, pretty much a 1:1 K to walk ratio. Only thing he’s been good at is keeping the ball in the park the last few seasons.
Gotta wonder if this was a favor for something else, because this guy ain’t worth anywhere near a million dollar bonus.
Why his career ear from year to year is just god awful but i guess it’ll be ok if we end up with Kevin maitan in the end
Kevin Maitan will need a translator.