The Brewers have picked up multiple international signing bonus slots from the Orioles, per a Baltimore announcement. It’s not clear just how many or which of the O’s remaining slots were moved in the deal.
Heading to the O’s in the swap is righty Aaron Myers. The 23-year-old owns a 4.37 ERA with 9.5 K/9 against 4.4 BB/9 over his 35 innings on the year at the Class A level.
This is the latest step taken by Baltimore to trade in its international spending capacity rather than utilizing it to sign amateur players. Recently, the team pulled off a similar deal with the Mets.
Trevor 3
There must be some logical reason why the O’s front office chooses to trade away these int. bonus slots. I’d like to hear from Dan Duquette before I get critical.
I Believe We Can Win
Owner probably doesnt want to break open the bank. In all honesty, Jeff Todd can probably chime in here, unless you go ham in the IFA like padres did in 2016 with morejon ona and all the guys they signed last year how likely are you to yield anything from IFA if you arent tossing gobs of money at players? Cubs did it in 2013 and got jimenez and torres. Yankees in 2014. Dodgers got alvarez in 2015.
sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/sdut-san-di…
wrigleyvillenation.com/2014/03/12/next-wave-cubs-g…
baseballamerica.com/international/2014-internation…
In all honesty though, orioles would probably trade draft picks for players if they could.
Whyamihere
They don’t have to spend money, and get more proven but lower upside prospects out of the deal
agentx
Too bad BAL didn’t trade their international money for Bartolo Colon and cash.
At least in that case there’d be a chance that someone the Orioles acquired for that money might actually contribute *something* at the major-league level.
sportsjunkie24
I dont think bartolo would do good in the al east with the short fences
agentx
Too bad BAL didn’t trade their international money to ATL for Bartolo Colon and cash.
At least in that case there’d be a chance that someone the Orioles acquired for those slots might actually contribute *something* at the major-league level.
mchaney317 2
The player the Orioles got looks like the dude on iCarly that sold the bagels on a stick…maybe I’m the only one here that would get that
I Believe We Can Win
And tacos. Dont forget the tacos on a stick
halos101
hahahahah
myaccount
Never thought I would see an iCarly reference on MLBTR. That show was gold.
goldglover444
Lol yeah man the smoothie guy!
Phillies2017
I was always convinced that guy was Andrew McCutchen. They look identical. I wish I could post the pictures on here.
Buhls name was T-Bo
Whyamihere
I thought they did away with the slot trading and now you just trade away pool space?
Aaron Sapoznik
Nothing new with the Orioles who seem to have a disdain for signing international free agents. During the final three months of the last signing period Baltimore made 3 trades relinquishing bonus slots including one with the White Sox that netted Chicago 2 (#45 and #75) which amounted to $756.3K , dollars they used to help diminish their overage penalty for signing top international FA Luis Robert.
therealryan
I was under the impression with the new international system that there wasn’t anymore “slots.” I thought teams could now trade however much of their international bonus away that they chose. In essence teams are just selling/buying minor league players for whatever amount of international bonus money they think that MiLB is worth, not MLB predetermined slot amounts.
Aaron Sapoznik
Per Baseball America: One difference in the new CBA is that teams will now be allowed to trade for additional pool space even if they have already spent their full pool allotment. Under the previous system, a team’s bonus pool consisted of four individual slot values, and trading pool space required trading those slot values. The new system is just a straight bonus pool with no individual slot values, so that should make things simpler with regards to trades.
Read more at baseballamerica.com/international/new-mlb-internat…
padresfan
They cannot do that
If they spend all their money prior to acquiring… it doesn’t work like that
That’d have to have money left to spend to acquire more
Aaron Sapoznik
Who can’t do what?
What does spending your pool allotment have to do with acquiring more. Teams just can’t trade their pool allotment if they don’t have any left to deal. In the case of the Orioles at least, that doesn’t seem to be a problem. They’ll just trade their pool away until it is exhausted.
halos101
baltimores refusal to dip into the international market makes no sense. Ben Badler of baseball america made a good point when he said that the orioles look around the east, see devers, serverino, vladdy jr, and gary sanchez yet still refuse to spend. If i was an Os fan that would drive me crazy
myaccount
I get that perspective, as the outright refusal would certainly irk me, but I would love to see some numbers on the bust rate of $1M+ international FAs. Giving a wad of cash to a teenager is extremely volatile. The ones that get truly paid are essentially valued the same as a top 10 pick so I can understand Duquette (or Angelos) staying away.
jdgoat
But even if they do bust eventually, they can still be used as valuable trade chips before that.
halos101
there’s no doubt that international prospects come with great risk, but you have to take those risks. Especially when you have a terrible farm system like the orioles
Phillies2017
Honestly though, other than the top 2-3 guys- the highest bonuses were under $2m. Thankfully they did away with those ludicrous deals for kids who were the equivalent to sophomores in high school in America.
Like whats a kid who can’t even get a drivers license going to do with $6,000,000?
I was very pleased when I saw most of the bonuses coming in at $1.25-$1.8m for the 2nd tier guys. Pardihno for example got $1.5 I believe- ranked 5th by MLB.com.
I just don’t get why Angelos won’t pay the equivalent of 3 Stefan Crichtons for a potential Edinson Volquez (apologizes, not the best analogy- its 3:38 am where I am, but you catch my drift).
It just makes no sense and doesn’t show a commitment to winning. They just keep trying to use toothpicks to keep the window open.
Phillies2017
Oh and just a note for everyone wondering the bust rate
I looked at a list of top 50- took out the ones 2014 and newer that havent been complete busts including ones that look like potential home runs like Jhailyn Ortiz, Vlad Guerrero Jr., Anderson Espinoza.
Overall I came to 8 for 32 so (25%)
The 8 I have as successes are Mazara, Sanchez, Wily Mo Pena, Miguel Cabrera, The reliever the Dodgers got from Taiwan in the late 90’s, Sano, Renato and Mondessi.
Now- obviously the crazy big bonuses started within the past 5 years and most of the recipients are currently aged 19-21 and are still a year or three away from the bigs so ask again in 3 years and the ratio will probably be closer to 50/50 than 25/75 simply due to the fact that guys who were busts (not all but most) couldn’t even succeed in the minors and the kids down there now are tearing it up.
padresfan
As much as I’d like to believe Espinoza would be ok. He hasn’t even pitched yet this year. Arm troubles