Cuban outfield prospect Jorge Ona has been declared a free agent by Major League Baseball, according to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). He’s now free to sign with any club, though the international bonus pool restrictions will apply.
Ona, 19, has long been expected to land with the Padres, and Sanchez suggests that’s still the case. At one point, it had seemed that he might be cleared to sign in the previous July 2 period, which would have opened up his market, but the league waited to act on his case for still-unknown reasons.
San Diego has already flown well past its international bonus allocation. That means that any amount that the club promises Ona — assuming they do get him — would require an equivalent payout in overage charges to the league. The Pads are already lined up for a two-year ban on $300K+ signings after this year’s class wraps up.
It remains to be seen, though, whether there’s any added competition for a player who is a bit closer to the majors than are typical July 2 prospects. And there’s upside aplenty: Ben Badler of Baseball America has suggested that Ona “has all the attributes to be a star right fielder,” describing a quick bat with power projection to go with good athleticism and a strong arm.
Ona and Morejon have obviously had handshake deals with padres for awhile, even if Ona got declared a FA in early june or may he was expected to sign with SD. Will be interesting to see what his bonus is.
Well, two year ban…. might as well dish out as much money as we can on young talent in the IFA market.
Will be very interesting come 2019 with all the talent Preller is accumuilating
Hedges, Renfoe, Margot, Espinoza, Paddack, Jose Torres, Lauer, Thompson, Lawson, Quantril, Nix, Asjuae, Logan Allen plus all the talent he’s accumulated in the IFA the past 2 years.
Come 2019 it will be be an interesting time to be a Padres fan that is for sure.
Preller has done a good job of acquiring talent for the future the past couple years.
Quantril, Lauer, Reed, Lawson, Thompson, Nix, Allen, Margot, Asjuae, Guerrera, Espinoza and all the IFAs he has signed the past two years.
From here I would like to see Preller do the following.
*Offer Buchter to the Cubs for Brad Markey, Mark Zanguins, and Christian Villanueva
*Offer Upton Jr to the Mets for Tj Rivera and Chris Flexen
*Offer Alexi Ramierz to the Mariners for Dan Altavilla
*Offer Cashner and Hand to the Rangers for Connor Sadzeck, Michael De Leon, and Victor Payano.
Still need to move Norris to make room for Hedges. Maybe include him in that Texas deal and change up the prospect package.
I really like De Leon and Payano (who finally has figured out how to repeat his mechanics a bit this year), but can’t see the Rangers moving them for 2 months of Cashner and an interchangeable lefty reliever.
Alexi Ramirez is on pace to post a -3 fWAR season by virtue of being horrible offensively, atrocious defensively, and only moderately awful on the basepaths, so it’s unlikely he’ll even bring back a Double-A reliever.
Any trade with the Mets should be built around Gavin Cecchini.
Don’t forget about our first pick last year Austin Smith. Michael Getty’s looks like he could be a nice little player as well along with Jose Rondon the shortstop we got in the Huston Street trade. Fernando Tatis Jr., Nick Torres. The future looks a lot brighter than it did this time last year.
I like the trades you mentioned as well, although I do think we should keep one of the left handed relievers in the bullpen in either hand or Buchter. Preferably we keep hand because Buchter will fetch more in a deal. I say we look to deal Solarte as well while his value is high. Spangenberg will be back soon and can fill his role. Just get as much talent in return for the current guys we have.
Keep Solarte.
Let Spangy play 2b and we have 4 5ths of our IF set for the next three years.
Hedges,Solarte,SS,Spangy,Myers
Just go ahead with the DH already and out Kemp there!
OF Dickerson-Margot/Freddie-Renfroe
With some luck from the mound who knows?
Jankowski > Dickerson. His defense and on base abilities make him extremely valuable. Walks become doubles when he’s on base. Outfield should be jankowski, renfoe, margot with dickerson getting starts here and there to rest guys.
AJ Preller for UN Ambassador during the Kanye West administration in 2020
Pacific Shark, Very decent picks! Nothing too out of bounds. Thank you for not making the Pads fans look like idiots by asking for 3 top five picks for Cashner in a trade….we have all seen it in other posts. I do think that to get that package from the Mets we would have to eat quite a bit of Jr’s salary, but other than that, very solid brother.
BTW, I could not find a stats page for Mark Zanguins…dont know about the spelling. Also, why does C. Villanueva have nothing for stats this year? Is he major injured? Let me know.
Thanks!
Here is Mark Zagunis
link to fangraphs.com
And yes Villanueva broke his ankle back in February or so.
Thanks. Good looking prospect as well. Get on the horn to AJ!