JUNE 15: The signing is now official. MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart tweets that Rodriguez’s exact bonus is $1.9MM, so he’ll cost the team a total of $3.8MM when accounting for the 100 percent luxury tax they’ll pay.
JUNE 6: The Astros have agreed to sign 20-year-old Cuban righty Elian Rodriguez for $2MM, Baseball America’s Ben Badler reports. The move will be subject to MLB’s rules regarding international bonus spending and will be part of the pool period that ends June 15. As such, the Astros will have to pay a 100% tax on the signing, bringing the total cost to $4MM.
There isn’t much English-language information about Rodriguez that’s widely available, but Badler reports the 6’4″, 205-pound righty has added velocity since leaving Cuba and can now touch 97 mph with his fastball. Rodriguez also throws a slider and curve, along with a changeup that Badler says he doesn’t use much yet. He pitched briefly for Camaguey in Cuba’s Serie Nacional in 2014.
The Astros have been active in the international market this signing season, inking prospects like Anibal Sierra from Cuba; Freudis Nova, Nerio Rodriguez and Deury Carrasco from the Dominican Republic; and Yorbin Ceuta and Angel Macuare from Veneuzela. (They also signed Yuli Gurriel from Cuba, although his signing was not subject to international bonus pool rules.) Houston had already incurred penalties for its signing totals, meaning the Astros were already ineligible to sign any player for more than $300K in either of the next two signing periods, the first of which begins on July 2.
With a bit more than a week to go until the signing period comes to a close, it’s possible that the Astros could try to sneak in one more signing. They’ve been loosely connected to 19-year-old Cuban shortstop Jose Israel Garcia, though there’s also very little in terms of readily available info on him.
Is he even good ??
Well for only 2 million he’s clearly not someone the league was drooling over. Other than that I wouldn’t be able to say since I’ve never heard of him. Consider him like any other prospect lottery ticket.
2 mil is not bad for an international prospect
Is ROBERT?
Hard slider and mid-nineties fastball. The system will build him up and hopefully he can help the club in 3-4 years.
pay a 100% tax, not an 100% tax.
Where’s DN that cries racism?
Get that BS outta here
Cool. I’ll be interested to see if he makes the top 30 prospects list anytime soon.
Wasn’t he part of “The Race Draft” on The Chappelle Show?
that was Elian GONZALEZ..reach pick by the Latinos. White delegation probably threw in a smokescreen.
Is this the 87th Cuban ball player to sign in the past few months? Anybody worth anything substantial has already fled the island.
“Pitching for Camaguey in Cuba’s 18U national league in 2015, Rodriguez in seven games (three starts) threw 7.1 innings and allowed 19 runs (12 earned) with seven strikeouts and 16 walks.”
Impressive!
Wow, definitely worth $3.8 Million of the fans money!
A definite PHENOM!
Maybe he was 3-1 in those, and a real winner, huh?
Lol destroyed
He averaged an inning an outing, they don’t give Wins to starting pitchers for an inning of work.
chump change
Was this the young child on the news in
Florida that got sent back to Cuba years ago?
Exactly what I was thinking. Elion the Cuban kid washed up on Florida coast?
Read the latest ESPN magazine for an interesting article on these Cuban ball players. More players have fled and signed in the past three years than the previous 50 years under Fidel combined!!! To say the talent has been diluted is an understatement.