5:05pm: Badler has an updated scouting report on Morejon and some details on the contract. Morejon’s deal is structured as a 2017 contract, according to Badler, so he won’t play in any official games for San Diego this year. Rather, he’ll spend the next two months pitching in simulated games at the Padres’ academy in the Dominican Republic and then report to the instructional league in September. The structuring of the contract means that they’ll have an extra year before it’s necessary to add him to the 40-man roster as protection from the Rule 5 Draft. Despite his youth, Morejon could be pitching for one of the Padres’ Class-A affiliates next season, Badler adds. The free report has plenty of additional info on Morejon and some quotes from an international scouting director, so it’s well worth a full read-through.
3:55pm: The Padres have agreed to a deal with Cuban left-hander Adrian Morejon that will pay the 17-year-old an enormous $11MM bonus, reports MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). Morejon was formally declared a free agent by Major League Baseball just yesterday. Baseball America’s Ben Badler wrote back in May that the Padres were the favorites to sign Morejon, and Sanchez said the same yesterday when reporting that Morejon had become eligible to sign.
San Diego has already soared past its league-allotted bonus pool, meaning that they’ll pay a 100 percent luxury tax on the signing. As such, Morejon effectively costs the club $22MM. The Padres last week signed 10 of international prospects (including a few of the top names on this year’s market), and while the terms of each agreement aren’t yet available, those expenditures topped $12.5MM. Morejon’s bonus is far and away the largest of the bunch.
Morejon was absent from the rankings of Sanchez and Badler due to the fact that he wasn’t technically a free agent when those reports were published. However, Sanchez notes in his tweet that he’d have ranked Morejon as the No. 2 prospect on this year’s market, and Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen agreed when ranking the international prospects on Fangraphs’ sortable scouting board. Longenhagen’s projections give Morejon the chance to have three plus pitches — fastball, curveball and changeup — with above-average command. He currently sits 89-92 mph with his heater and tops out at 94, per Longenhagen, though given his age, he’s of course quite a ways from realizing that potential. Badler called him one of the best Cuban players available to MLB clubs back in February (Morejon had already left Cuba but was not yet a free agent at that point), writing that scouts to whom he spoke believed Morejon to be a more promising prospect than the considerably more-talked-about Lazaro Armenteros.
The Padres were allotted a bonus pool of $3.347MM, meaning they’ll be faced with more than $20MM worth of luxury tax penalties even if their spending stops today. Given the aggressive nature of their run at this year’s crop of international talent, though, it seems unlikely that the Padres will call it a day right now. They’ll be barred from signing any international amateurs for more than $300K in each of the next two signing periods due to their overspending, so it makes sense to continue to aggressively pursue talent between now and June 15, 2017, when the current international signing period comes to a close.
LOL What?
Well, can’t blame the Padres for trying. Hope they can trade every current player that has value. It’s going to be a while before any of these prospects make it, IF they pan out.
With the number they’re signing, some of them are bound to work out no matter how badly they screw them up!
The 10th-best player in Cuba? More like the 10th-best player still in Cuba.
Padres joining Red Sox as teams limited in future international signings. Might as well get some good players though. 10 prospects will restock farm system fast
Glad to see padres actually spend money somewhere and put forth some real investments in the farm system. Real excited about this kid, definitely a gamble with teenagers but hopefully the team hits on a couple of these signings. We need a cornerstone type player from this crop.
As a lifelong Padre fan, I have always said that instead of paying $3 million for a muddling middle reliever. Take that money pay for the very best minor league/organizational pitching and hitting coaches that money can buy. The rest would go for more quality scouts. Make it known in the MLB that when a quality coach or scout’s contract is up you are in the market. We have been very poor at developing and identifying talent in the last 20 years. This would be a great start to making the Padres a franchise on the move to be a contender again.
I am excited to see how this international signing period goes. This kid is supposedly as talented or better than Lazarito. We are favorites to sign Ona when he is eligible and there are several more names out there that we could grab. It’s a gamble on all these young and very raw prospects but the upside if just a couple make it is worth the risk. This is where AJP should shine and will go a long way in deciding his future in San Diego.
Padres went all out. Even though it will be years before some of these players are ready, restocking the farm was a must. Some can be used as trade bait if the Padres want to compete sooner than later
Love the aggressiveness vs what the Padres did a year ago.
Given the number of teams that will be limited, a few teams may want to pick their years to be aggressive in alternate years
Lol 11 million on a 17 year old
11 million x 2
Jealous? what else are the Padres gonna spend the money on? And even then, it’s better than spending over 60 million on a 19 year old.
I really like how aggressive the Padres are being. Hopefully some of these guys they signed end up turning into something really valuable.
Not a Pads fan but he’s 17 which gives them 3 to 5 years to build a team. I agree trade everyone and target 2020. Sad but true.
I’m a lifelong Padres fan and I absolutely hated what AJ Preller did last offseason – selling off the farm for a bunch of ill-fitting pieces (right-handed power hitters with poor defense and other ancillary skills). He went “all-in” to win a division or wild-card spot but the Padres lost more games in 2015 than they did in 2014, and they’re going to lose more games than that this year.
But I like what he’s done in this July 2 period a lot. It will be four or five years to pan out, but hopefully the sheer bulk of talent acquired will provide a few major league regulars or even all-star caliber players. It’s going to be a rough few years before then but I feel like this is the AJ Preller the Padres hired, not the one who sold off the farm for a bunch of mediocre talent last offseason.
Except he sold piles of dirt from a barren farm …..
Majority of what he traded has had little impact at the big league level. Think Joe Ross is the only one to have a substantial impact.
He turned j peterson, d peterson, fried, mallex smith into hudson pott, reggie lawson, and mason thompson as pott agreed to a slot bonus over 2 mill less which he used for lawson and thompson over slot deals. Pott was selected with the j upton comp pick. Which, people seem to overlook, increases a teams allotment money.
He turned wisler, a balance pick which became austin riley, cameron maybin,and carlos quentin into manny margot, carlos asjuae, logan allen, javier guerrera and melvin upton jr, which also increases the haul cause upton has rebuilt value the past 2 seasons and will net prospects in his own right.
He turned joe ross and trea turner into wil myers. We will see what the padres get for myers or if they lock him up long term but hes been nothing but excellent this year. 30/30 seasons dont come often.
Wow. What a ridiculous comment. You’re claiming that the players he traded away aren’t worth anything because they haven’t made an impact in the majors? A year after they were traded? Not enough time has passed to tell what value those guys hold so don’t try to say they’re busts.
And to top it off, you think Melvin Upton is going to bring you back prospects? LOL. Talk about not getting it.
Almost everything Preller’s done has been stupid. Even these signings and paying the 100% tax, it’s ridiculous. The Padres get worse and worse and fall into bigger and deeper holes every year and you sit there praising the guy putting you there? Hilarious.
First off have you seen what the prospects and players are currently doing?
Here’s a run down for you since you seem to be ill informed on the matter.
A. Kemp for Yasmani Grandal joe eieland and Zech Eflin
*Grandal is hitting .183/.301/.371 and offer negative defensive value as a catcher if you exclude pitch framing which he excels at. Also, confirmed PED user.
* Zach Eflin thus far has an xfip of 4.83 though 5 starts. Eflin doesnt have a dominant fastball sits between 92-93 and looks like a 4th or 5th starter material, 3rd at best if he can command it better but hitters are killing his fb, slider, and change
*wieland was shipped off to seattle.
B. Derek Norris and seth streich, not sure on that last guy, for Jesse Hahn and Rj Alvarez
*Jesse Hahn has been a train wreck for the A’s 4.15 k/9. 4.91 xfip and injuries.
*Rj Alvarez recently released after a 5+ xfip with the cubs or something now.
Justin Upton for Mallex Smith Dustin Peterson Jace Peterson Max Fried.
*Fried a recovering tjs is sporting a 4 fip in the braves a ball club with 9 k/9 but 4 bb/9.
*jace peterson posted .239/.314/.382 last year and had an awful april may, demoted, great june, sucky july so far this year. Ill let you look up the avg by month for him. Under .200, over .300, around .200 respecrively.
*Dustin Peterson .272/.337/.411 for the braves double A team.
*mallex smith has batted .237/.312/.379. Meanwhile the padres have jankwoski .250/.363/.313. And have margot and renfoe waiting in aaa. Plus alex dickerson as their 4th OF.
C. Kimbrel and Upton for maybin, quentin, paroubeck, wisler
*wisler sported a 5.10 xfip last year and a 4.85 this year. Hes not exactly living up to the top prospect ace #2 billing, was #40 in rankings when traded.
*paroubeck was traded to the dodgers and is .200/.262/.317 in a ball
*Maybin put up exactly 1 WAR last year in atlanta staying healthy after 2 seasons missing 60+ games with the padres. He was dealt to detroit and has missed 40+ so far. Hes productive when healthy, but thats an issue for him.
Upton put up a wRC+ of 110 and a wRC+ of 101 so far this year. He can give you an average bat with good defense and great base skills. If you think hes not worth ANY prospects, never said high end prospects, you clearly are uneducated on the value of a league average bat with good defense and ability to steal and run the bases. He also offers some power. May not get a high end prospect but to go from being released potentially by atlanta to being a trade chip for prospects its a win for the padres.
D. Wil Myers for Trea Turner Joe Ross.
We all know what joe ross and trea turner are doing and we know myers is an all star on his way to a 30/30 season and controllable for 3 more seasons. Had he stayed healthy he would of been untouchable by the rays. Padres bought low, paid a good price, but myers has been a monster this year.
LOL cant believe you didn’t look any of this up before commenting man. How embarassing for you. Who exactly did he trade that youre expecting to “wow” you down the road? So far its slim pickings on who he traded.
Come back when you’re better educated on the subject. I dont want to waste my time proving how ill informed you are.
Every deal Preller has made seems to be working out.He is the best GM in the game.
Not a Padres fan, but picking up Morejon is huge. I loved how AJ Preller went all in last offseason, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. He was praised as a great hiring and now I’m starting to see why. Ownership let him go for it last year and have now given him a long enough leash to back track and re-tool this team.
I somewhat agree with you, but quality GMs typically trade away players that dont fit their style or interests that they want in their acquisitions. He gambled and went for broke with a risky team, but it didnt work. Some of those kids will do well but I dont think he traded away any HOFamers when that happened. I trust Preller in the International market….it was his bread and butter when with Texas, and why they hired him. This is his strength and I am hopeful for our Padres future. Hope it doesnt stop. I also like the risks he took in our normal draft as well. I dont have blinders on but he hasnt screwed the pooch yet…lets hope that ownership doesnt cut his legs out from under him before he sees something out of all of this…