The Twins have agreed to a deal with Venezuelan outfielder Carlos Aguiar, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. The contract contains a $1MM bonus.
Aguiar wasn’t eligible to be signed until his 16th birthday, which took place on August 28. “Several late suitors” besides the Twins were also vying for Aguiar’s services, Berardino writes, though Aguiar had been linked to Minnesota since well before the 2017-18 international signing period opened on July 2.
Aguiar ranked 30th on Baseball America’s list of the top 50 (non-Cuban) prospects in the 2017-18 international class. A left-handed hitter, Aguiar is already 6’3″ and 190 pounds at his young age.
The Twins already made one big splash in this year’s int’l market with their $3MM signing of Dominican shortstop Jelfry Marte, one of the priciest bonuses handed out to any player in this year’s class. Minnesota entered July 2 with a total bonus pool of $5.25MM and acquired another $500K in international spending money from the Nationals as part of the Brandon Kintzler trade. $4.3MM of that $5.75MM total has been accounted for between the bonuses for Marte, Aguiar and Dominican outfielder Luis Baez, who signed for $300K.
Berardino also reports that Mauro Bonifacio, a Dominican outfielder long linked to the Twins, has been drawing attention from other teams and now won’t be signing with Minnesota.
I thought they weren’t supposed to report the bonus amounts for Venezuelan prospects.
why?
I don’t get how basically High School Freshman are getting a Million bucks when they are not the second coming of Ted Williams.
Because the second coming of Ted Williams in today’s baseball market value would cost (at least) $30MM+/year…I would guess that’s why.
Risk vs. Reward.
If they want him to develop, just keep him away from Miguel Sano and have him hang out and train with Eddie Rosario instead.
Imagine this comment at the end of 2015…