The Braves are slated to lose their rights to a dozen young prospects as punishment for international signing violations. Additionally, the Atlanta organization will face limitations on their amateur signing rights in the future.
Most notably, perhaps, the Braves will lose their rights to highly regarded prospect Kevin Maitan, as Jon Heyman of Fan Rag first reported (via Twitter) and as earlier reporting suggested. A long list of others are also being stripped from the organization, as Ben Badler of Baseball America reported earlier. Backstop Abrahan Gutierrez, shortstop Yunior Severino, righty Juan Contreras, shortstop Livan Soto, righty Yefri del Rosario, shortstop Yenci Pena, righty Guillermo Zuniga, outfielder Juan Carlos Negret, and outfielder Antonio Sucre are also heading on to the open market, according to the Baseball America report. Those prospects were members of the club’s vaunted 2016-17 July 2 class. A big name from the following signing period, Korean shortstop Jihwan Bae, is also being taken from the team, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, with outfielder Brandol Mezquita and shortstop Angel Rojas rounding out the list of departing prospects.
Maitan, in particular, was viewed as one of the best young international players in recent memory at the time of signing. Despite a tough debut in the Appalachian League, the infielder ranks 38th on MLB.com’s latest list of the top prospects in baseball. Even if it’s true that the current front office is not quite as enamored with Maitan as some others, he’s a notable asset to lose. (BA’s J.J. Cooper rounds up the latest impressions of Maitan right here.)
Looking forward, the Braves will also face restrictions for future amateur classes, as Passan details. The club will be capped at $10K per player for the 2019-20 period and will not be allowed to sign shortstop Robert Puason. According to Passan, the investigation found that the team had improperly agreed to a deal with him ahead of his market eligibility. In 2020-21, Atlanta will operate with half of the hard-capped spending capacity it otherwise would have had access to. Also, owing to an offer of “extra benefits” to 2017 draftee Drew Waters, the Braves will lose their third-round pick in next summer’s draft.
Other organizations will surely flock to sign the players that are now free agents. Those prospects will be allowed to retain their original bonuses in addition to negotiating new ones. Generally, those players will be subject to the already-extant rules and limitations in the international arena. But Passan tweets that teams will be allowed to use currently available international funds or draw from their 2018-19 pool to sign these players (but may not utilize both). MLB organizations still have uncommitted international money — some of it likely earmarked for Shohei Ohtani and a few other quality names still available — so there could be quite some competition for the former Braves prospects.
Clearly, the Braves took a significant hit for the amateur infractions that occurred during the regime of president of baseball operations John Hart and GM John Coppolella. Those two executives have departed already (see here and here), with the latter having received the brunt of the public scrutiny. Though precise details are still largely unreported, Passan says signing-bonus packaging was the primary concern identified. While the Yahoo Sports report acknowledges that other organizations have likely engaged in generally similar behavior, it seems the Braves’ actions were particularly brazen and widespread.
Newly minted GM Alex Anthopoulos will still have plenty of talent to work with, but the cupboard of young talent won’t be quite as stocked as the organization had hoped when it snapped up an impressive group of international free agents — evidently, through illicit means. On the one hand, these penalties won’t have any direct effect at the MLB level, since none of these players was close to the big leagues. On the other, Anthopoulos will not have as much flexibility to part with far-off talent if he enters the trade market in search of assets. That’s all the more notable given the restrictions on international spending rights for the coming seasons. The net result is that the Braves’ talent intake at the most youthful level will have been substantially curtailed for multiple consecutive seasons. Such a result runs directly counter to the overall strategy that the organization had employed.
For Anthopoulos to craft an overall slate of players that promises the kind of sustainability that Atlanta (like all organizations) hopes to create, he’ll have to remain all the more mindful of finding opportunities to draw in younger assets even while exploring ways of moving the major league roster into position to contend. Taking chances on talented but risky players on the 40-man roster is one way of infusing talent, but the club would need to sacrifice certainty and/or tie up valuable roster spots to do much of that. It’s also possible that the Braves will end up moving some higher-level prospects to build out the lower levels, though again that’s a diversion of resources that could otherwise be utilized in other ways. Any way you slice it, the organization will be much more constrained than it would have been absent the penalties. Of course, that also seems to be a fairly natural result of the fact that the team acquired these young players in an improper manner (the details of which, somewhat surprisingly, have yet to be fully detailed in firm reports).
As expected
Not too surprised
So back into the International pool? Many still limited to 300k per.
Yeah but they get to keep their $$ so that might not be as important this time around
Connor, agreed, at least on the lower-level guys. Maitan I expect to sign with someone who still has most of their international money, especially if they don’t think they have a legit shot at Otani. Maybe he goes to a team without that much money for the environment, but I’d be a little surprised if he turned down a few million for a few hundred K.
I could see one of the losers of the Otani sweepstakes deciding to use that money towards Maitan.
Do the Tigers have a shot?
Seems like the Braves’ punishment might be more harsh than the Cardinals and imo what the Cardinals did was much worse
They haven’t even really said what coppy did so not sure how you can dto that conclusion
How can you say that?
You don’t know everything the Braves did.
“Unprecedented rules violations” is probably a whole lot worse than “hacking” a rivals system.
Given that hacking a rival’s system is a felony, I’m going with no.
That said, the difference seems to be that there wasn’t evidence that the Cardinals organization knew what was going on with regard to the hacking; their “crime” was essentially a failure to supervise. Whereas in the Braves’ case, the misconduct went right into the GM’s office. It was both a failure to supervise (on Hart’s shoulders) and essentially organizational consent to the entire scheme given how high it went and the fact that team dollars were used for it.
And you might be wrong. What happened in the Cardinals case was illegal and a felony. That’s for the criminal justice system. MLB’s penalties aren’t dependent on that. This was an unprecedented rules violation, but didn’t involve any criminal activity. Violating the rules results in a penalty from the league. If the league thinks it’s a bigger rules violation the punishment will be greater. And “unprecedented” indicates they do.
This punishment is in in with the Red Sox so far.
Our definitions of worse are clearly different. A cyber felony vs what could potentially be something involving/harming actual humans or taking advantage of poverty stricken cultures is something that isn’t even debatable. Legality does not determine which act is “worse”. Dropping an atomic bomb during war is “legal”, peeing in public is not…which is worse?
False equivalency is a logical error for a reason, and I am not going to engage in it.
I also see absolutely no evidence that actual humans were “harmed.” If anything they were given bonuses beyond what their kin have, and the rules violation is with respect to the gifts and bundles being disallowed. It’s about being anti-competitive, not taking advantage of anybody.
We actually agree about one thing: Breaking a rule that is fundamentally about fair play for clubs owned by billionaires and breaking federal law are clearly different. We just don’t agree which is worse.
perhaps the individual action was worse, but I think the effect on the league is more widespread here. My understanding with the hacking was that the guy read several scouting reports from Houston and he may or may not have used them. This appears to have had a much more widespread effect on the competition in the game
You’re reading whatever you want into the words, and the words don’t even belong to the league, they belong to reporters.
“Unprecedented” means it hasn’t happened before. That’s it. The hacking of a rivals’ computer system to steal scouting information and advanced statistical techniques was unprecedented regardless of whether or not the word was ever used. The scope of what the Braves have done may or may not be unprecedented; we have no idea what they’ve done at this point, merely descriptions of it. Choosing to read “unprecedented” as “this is bigger than completely unrelated incidents!” is your choice.
And it doesn’t change my point either way: The Braves are going to get bent over because the misconduct came from the GM’s office and used team dollars, the Cardinals got off relatively easier because it didn’t.
@i give no fox, if you’re getting into the moral situation and the trafficking element, how ALL of these kids are treated qualifies.
What the Cardinals scouting director did is a felony and he’s in jail for that. From what’s been proven the Cardinals has no idea. The actions of one man on his own without others knowing. The Braves deal went way past that. Everyone knew. Teams were complaining to the league office about their tactics. They lost the guys they signed illegally that seems plenty fair. They lost some money in international spending allowance. It was so out of control they basically signed an entire class illegally. Sorry but that’s pretty brash and incredibly out of control and over the top
We don’t know details yet but a couple of these violations make it hard for me to believe it didn’t reach the very top levels of the organization. Some of these things take money that would have to come from the organization and with some kind of explanation for what it was used for. Doubt they have a petty cash box with that kind of money in it
How many accounts does the downvoting troll have?
Probably not as many as you
Pot meet kettle! Black !
@brucewayne you talking to me? This is my only account.
Intrested to hear what the infractions that Cooppy did turn out to be.
No surprise… I hate this whole situation. As a Braves fan it’s devastating to see the light at the end of the tunnel and then get hit again. I’d love to rationalize losing Maitan by pointing to his bad debut, but we still lost a great trade piece (at the very least)
I’d like to remind Braves fans that we still have a top farm system with an abundance of talent! Excited for Braves future, hopefully we can put this behind us and hang on to our draft picks
Hate to break it to you, but he’s not the only one you’re losing.
Not the only one, but the largest piece.
it didn’t say that anywhere
The only INT FA they have ahead of him on their Top List by MLB is Acuna and I doubt they lose him.
what does that have to do with anything
Yeah, Acuna signed in 2014, a year before Coppy became GM.
he was the assistant at the time so he could have still been involved in some cheating at that time
he was the assistant GM at the time which means he could have still been involved
Oh for sure, I was replying to this direct report. That’s why I’m hoping we’re keeping our draft picks
I’d like to remind you there’s a good chance they won’t have the top farm system anymore after this scandal.
I’d like to remind you that despite how much I hate the Braves, they will still have a top farm system. They aren’t losing anyone significant besides Maitan. That won’t ruin their farm at all. Big loss, but they’ll be fine, unfortunately
Anddddd they lost several significant pieces 2 hours later said the narrator
Significant is a strong word… not sure it applies to anyone other than Maitan
Of the 6 known players being stripped so far, only one was a consensus top 20 prospect in our farm. Gutierrez and Severino could be placed in the 20-30 range without much argument, but for our farm that’s not ‘significant’. Of the names left to be revealed, the only one that could seriously affect our farm rankings is Christian Pache, but so far he hasn’t been mentioned at all by anyone. A lot of us Braves fans who follow the IFA and farm system thought there was something fishy with the Derian Cruz signing, so he’s a name I’m still looking at. But in terms of farm ranking, it shouldn’t drop us unless one of the top competitors get Maitan IMO.
Actually the comish named them all in his statement. Pache and Cruz are safe. I had the same worry too.
Always thought winning at the major league level was the goal. Have they made a trophy for best reviewed farm system, yet?
Justice League was highly anticipated and had a great trailer. Just shows that hype can still end up in disappointment.
Side note: if you hadn’t figured out that all of DC’s movies have great trailers but don’t live up to the hype before Justice League, then I can’t help you
Seems like the Braves’ punishment might be more harsh than the Cardinals and imo what the Cardinals did was much worsening
How could you possibly know that considering that no one has reported the full extent?
Why are you even trying to compare the two? You can’t rationalize either or compare either. Fact is precedence has been set especially if and when discussing bundling prospects.
Worsening?
I’m sorry I’m out of the loop… what happened with the cardinals?
Cards got caught hacking into the Astro’s FO network. I think it was 2 years ago.
Does he become a free agent then?
Amateur one, yes.
If I remember correctly when the Red Sox got caught for bundling international prospects signings together didn’t the players become unrestricted free agents and not just amateur free agents?
I don’t remember all the details just wondering if maybe there is some kind of CBA loophole making these kids unrestricted free agents.
No, they were still subject to the international rules. Teams like the Yankees, Rangers and Twins are in good shape.
They were restricted, but their money didn’t count against the cap for up to the amounts the Red Sox had paid them. Those numbers were much smaller, however, so who knows whether MLB will do the same here.
Subject to the July 2nd International bonus pool restrictions and rules.
I knew it. Oh well. Not the end of the world.
Still have Acuna, they good
Acuna is the best prospect in baseball.
So how did MLB decide which international amateur free agents they can keep and the one(s) they have to give up?
This is pure speculation, but I’d assume the players lost were the ones involved in the violation.. whatever the violation was exactly.
Maybe, but since we don’t know much about the actual violation, we can only speculate.
Pretty sure it’s their complete international class from that year.
By doing a 3 month investigation into which ones were signed improperly. Then freeing them to sign with another team.
So do they Braves still have to pay him the whole contract?
Already paid. They don’t get their $ back.
Ouch! No refund AND they lose the rights to Maitan? That’s organizational pain.
One Word: San Diego Padres Rat Dance
Two things: San Diego Padres At Dance is NOT one word, and Mike Dee’s misinformation about over the counter anti-inflammatories is WAY different to the Braves using/hiding money to sign top talent…
I’ll bet Frank Wren is having a great day!
Yes, let’s hope wheverver he is Dan Uggla, Chris Johnson, Kenshin Kawakami, Derek Lowe and Melvin Upton Jr. sends him a Christmas card for all he did for them.
I think all IFAs should whistle blow on their own signings for every team so they also can get paid twice. How fair is that ??
I think Braves fans should suck it up and take their medicine.
If teams had wind of players doing that you’d see teams start trading prospects for prospects or players as to not lose them like this.
For instance, say the cubs violated rules to get eloy jimenez. the mlb isnt going to rescind the quintana trade just to punish the cubs and mame eloy a free agent.
Braves fan here and I have no problem with the punishment.
Maybe I missed it in the article
But could you all list teams capable best chance of signing Maitan? Is he eligible to sign with any team or are there limits to some teams but not others?
Twins, Mariners are some of the few that have the most money. I believe LAD also have quite a bit.
I’d bet SEA or MIN signing him.
The teams who were not allowed to spend more than $300k, still can’t
The Twins, rangers and yanks have more than $3mil. The M’s have $1.5mil. Everyone else has less than $1mil because they’ve already spent the bulk of their $ for this year.
Beyond Ohtani and whomever the Braves lose there is a recent Cuban defector who could also be highly sought after.
Thx. I’m wondering if he already got $4m…how much does he look at “fit” (e.g. is there a clear path at x-position?) and how much does he look to maximize $$. He’s young enough that other factors like comfort and support can matter more than a 22+ yr old.
but he also likely comes from poverty and is still far away from his next payday. I think he’ll take the $$
Dude, he’s 16 and its possible he never makes the bigs. Why would he sign for much less when its possible that it could be the last payday he has in MLB.
What kind of question is that? As a 16 year old kid, what exactly would constitute the “right fit”? At minimum, he’s 3-4 years away from the major leagues, and every team’s lineups will be drastically different. Heck, the only two players who you can pretty much say will be exactly where they are then are Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera.
He will sign with whomever offers the most money, as any of us would.
Forget everything I typedBen Badler just tweeted they’re changing the rules for this.
Sucks, but it’s time to move on!
Oh well. Braves are still in a great position moving forward. All these guys we’re losing, while it sucks. were all 3-4 years away from the bigs and we all know how risky guys that far away are. They’re anything but sure beats to pan out. All the Braves key prospects will arrive in 2018 or 2019 and that is when we’ll see the fruits of this rebuilt.
Contracts for players that the Red Sox lost didn’t count against the cap for up to the amounts they previously signed for. It will be interesting to see if that remains the same.
Learn your rules!!
Might both of these players been underage when they were signed?
Wow, the Braves do the humanitarian thing and bring two kids, caught up in a civil war in their native country, to the US and spend a few bucks putting them up and this good deed is exploited by the cheating Yankees, who own the commissioner’s office, to prosecute a bigoted punishment on the good guys. Well, their day will come.
This is the best hot take yet.
Well Done, Sir!
Agreed. I’d be interested to know how much extra money was spent.
Like when we did the humanitarian thing and saved the Indians from having to pay property taxes
I have a feeling your a Mets fan
His a Mets fan what?
Well done.
Now the Braves top 4 2016 signees are FA’s
I wouldn’t be as enamored with a guy I have no choice but to get rid of either
Question….As these players are now considered free agents, could they potentially sign with the Braves again, or are they barred from the organization entirely?
Red Sox prospects were barred. I’d assume the same here.
even if they could which i doubt they can they’d be limited to 300k each
Should put Hillary in charge of the Braves, she could funnel all that money right back into the organization.
Greatest comment of the year.
Take notes, Roger Goodell. How cheaters are properly punished – with evidence and after a legitimate investigation.
Sucks for Braves fans, they did nothing wrong. But had to know that the top prospects wouldnt be allowed to sign with Braves after this. Coppolella really effed them here.
Rangers have to be the favorites for Maitan. I’d imagine cold-weather, northern cities like MIN and NY would have to really pony up to convince these kids to go that far north
Why? Those teams sign dozens of Dominican players every year. I’ve never heard of one turning down a team due to weather.
That’s disingenuous, you havent heard of them turning down a team for any reason. So of course you’ve never heard of it because of weather. Weather, system, players in front of you… these are all factors.
So the Yankees, way up north, with Gleyber Torres tabbed as their long-term SS, and the Twins with Royce Lewis and Nick Gordon as their top prospects, also shortstops, are probably not ideal. So while they have money, they have other factors going against them – blocked pathways at Maitan’s position as well as a drastic weather change for a kid who’s barely old enough to drive. The Rangers have no such prospect, have money, have weather that Maitan is more used to.
Moncada signing with the Red Sox, blocked for a few years at both SS and 2B, cold weather team, able to sign Moncada.
You can’t say I don’t think cold weather teams will be able to sign him because of weather, and when some points out that plenty of these young Latin American ball players sign with cold weather teams, you try and readjust your argument. You sound foolish
I sound foolish?
YOU CITED A SIGNING THAT WAS OUTSIDE THE INTERNATIONAL POOL. He chased money, which as I said before, is the #1 driving factor. But because that is more equal now, other factors are more prevalent. And if you don’t think weather is a big one, then you keyboard scouts are simply wrong. I actually talk to athletes in my profession. You guys talk to each other in echo chambers all day.
I really don’t think weather has anything to do with it. They’ll pay wherever they’ll have the best chance to make money, either now or in the future.
It absolutely has something to do with it. I’ve dealt with HS (going to college) and college (going pro) athletes in my line of work (sports medicine). Not the primary factor most of the time, but it is a factor in decision making. Never dealt with a Dominican player signing obviously, but if kids in the states make it a priority, why wouldn’t they as well, if they had the chance?
Oh I don’t know, money.
Money is relatively equal in this case. I didnt know I had to specify because there were so many ‘experts’ here. But I guess not.
Wet weather means the money grows bigger and greener.
*Weather* one of the funniest posts ever… These kids would play on the sun if it guaranteed them a chance to play and better their lot in life…
This isn’t a draft, dunce. This is free agency, so they get to pick where they play. And you’d better believe weather factors into the decision. Not very different than when US kids choose colleges.
These kids are teenagers that are years away from making the bigs. Prospects are traded all the time so its likely most of these kids get traded prior to making it to the show. Why sign for less because of weather or fit when in 2 years while playing in Short A they get traded somewhere else, Take the money.
And you live where
Who said sign for less? Money is almost always the primary factor. The Rangers, Yankees, and Twins are about on par money-wise. So then secondary factors come into play: culture, where you are playing, who’s ahead of you.
But not arguing that money isnt the primary factor. Maitan should get close to, if not the full, 4.25m all over again from one of those teams. But the Rangers seem to have all the advantages that aren’t money.
Don’t US kids choose based on their line of study, cost, and scholarships? Or were you referring to the 1%?
No, they don’t care about scholarships and line of study. They just look at the dew point
And what if the money is mostly equal, as it is here? A lot of these athletes get full rides, so secondary factors matter, and a big part of that is lifestyle. Which includes things to do in surrounding areas, weather, nightlife, average age. But what would I know, I just work in tandem with Cal Berkeley scouts on these things. I’m sure you former pro athletes know all about fullride scholarships.
Average age? Really? Aren’t most college students still fairly young
and around the same age usually ?
This is an absolutely insane level of penalty. The precedent this sets is through the roof. Unless the Braves were fraternizing with North Korea or something I don’t understand how MLB can do this. If they’re consistent they’ll now go in and take away prospects from boatloads of over teams that had hand-shake agreements and gave them money under the table
I’ve got a feeling for now this will stop with the Braves. Eventually another team will get caught though. Until MLB addresses this on a baseball level instead of just an individual team level it will continue.
Also I don’t think losing 4 players is the extent of this. There will be more. They haven’t even addressed what the future penalties will be toward IFA signings, or whether or not there will be any punishment on the domestic side.
The “handshake deal” isn’t the reason for the punishment.
Spending money on hotels for potential prospects is against league mandates. Doing that is to dance around the league spending limits.
Do that, and lose the prospects. Precedent set.
Per Passan’s article linked above:
“As the investigation into the Braves unfolded, executives around baseball agreed that other teams disregard the rules in similar fashion to Atlanta. The Braves were simply the ones caught. “
I’m fine with the punishment that was laid down, although certainly it is a huge blow to the Braves organization. I do hope however that the heavy handedness doesn’t just end with the braves. If ANY improper signings are found in any other organization they should follow the precedent that has now been set in stone.
Look at what happened with the bosox
It was already set far is far
Stay away prior to eligibility
Don’t try to pawn money off to bad prospects
Plan it safe
But does the old rule still stand? If you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying?
There is always a team that sets the precedent. It happens to be the braves this time.
signing these players should be based on the restrictions in place at the time the Braves signed them since that’s the teams that were harmed by this?
I’d say play in Mexico, Japan, or Korea, so he doesn’t lose development time, then come back when teams have money to spend, but he’s still so young…
I wonder who will be able to get Matian
Not who is able but who will. He kept his money so what does everyone think for a location?
I’m a padres fan but I don’t see them in the mix.
I’m not up to date with pool money that aren’t favors to get the Japanese Babe Ruth
What sucks about the Padres tie-in to all of this is that Maitain looked as if it was ATL and SD he was deciding between when making his decision. He chose ATL, Padres lose that opportunity. Again they get another chance a year later and they lose again because they are limited to 300K because of the penalty from “Maitian’s” draft year. Preller seemed to be all over this dude, just sucks that even if the player liked Preller, the staff, everything about San Diego, money will always speak. And even though he has already received his bonus, he would be stupid to not double-dip and get another 3M if possible.
I doubt he pulls an “Otani” and choose a signing destination based off feel, clubhouse, the fans, the community.. It’s a business, it’s all about one thing $. So seeing Maitan sign for anything less than a teams max remaining budget would be shocking.
I wish the royals would get him
you never know, maybe they will. I can tell you the Royals have a better shot at this point than the Braves:)
So I guess this means they’ll lose 85 games five years from now instead of 80? They’re definitely losing another 90-plus in 2018. They may never be good again.
Might as well fold up the franchise…..idiot.
You, sir, are a moron.
You do realize that even after this loss, their farm system would still be in the top 3 in the sport, right? And that’s *after* graduating several guys this past year. I’m not a Braves fan, but I think they’ll be just fine. The only worry is if, five years from now, Maitan lives up to his potential for another team. Of course, it’s also feasible that he’ll face tougher competition and flame out. Either way, I don’t think the Nats will be as good without Harper and no one else in the division looks ready to leap forward, so I think the Braves will be in the thick of the division title hunt within the next few years.
Very sad day for a once-storied franchise.
Hopefully they go after “Coppy” in court with everything they have, even though he’s lawyered up and refuses to talk.
I honestly wonder how Coppy even thinks he has a case against the Braves after all this.
The moral of the story is be like the cardinals with your cheating ways and certainly don’t cheat like the braves.
cardnals lost quite a bit to… they just didn’t cheat as much or as badly as the braves. moral of the story is if you cheat cheat like the Redsox and don’t let it be good prospect… or you know. don’t cheat at all.
You sound bitter.
I believe it was a low-level employee of the Cardinals orginization
and not the whole Cardinals orginization ! Big difference!
“His name is Robert Pualson!” — where my Fight Club (sshhh!) fans at?
In death, a member of Project Mayhem HAS a name. HIS name is Robert Paulson.
I find it interesting that we have a verdict and penalty but yet don’t know the actual charges
which I for one am waiting to hear. Rumor and all are great but what did the Brave front office actually do? I see guesses and rumors but as of yet no real facts as to what hey did.
YOURE A BRAVE FAN WITH HIS HEAD BURIED IN THE SAND they said exactly what the braves did
among them are bribing buscones to steer players away from other teams,
signing players before they were actually permitted to sign (ie before their 16th birthday
paying other players money to give to highly coveted prospects, so they could exceed allowable limits
each if these things were done to gain an advantage over all 29 other teams,
the penalty was deserved and may actually be considered soft.. the fact that the commissioner said it was unprecedented and system wide says it was blatant and with full knowledge of the consequences
apparently there were email records that verified the extent of their complicit actions.
its sad for braves fans but the braves organization has no cause to complain
The Braves also lost their rights to Warren Spahn
go get him coppy!
I am guessing the White Sox now have the number one rated farm system
*Holding out hope that Maitan wants to be best friends with Eloy Jimenez and come play for the Sox*
This makes perfect sense for the Sox. They should have the money to sign him. Fits perfect in the rebuild timeframe.
Get on it padres
Get Matian !
Damn did they take Hank’s statue too ????
I was expecting worst case scenario for the Braves, and the penalties levied by MLB so far are much worse than I anticipated. Organizational nightmare.
It hurts, but it could have been much worse. They hittest the hardest by preventing us signing anyone significant for almost 2 years when considering the sanctions imposed through 2020-21 international signing period. We still have Pache, Derian Cruz and Drew Waters — all whose names were initially feared being included. And thank god they didn’t take William Contreras, who I think long-term will be better than Abe Gutierrez. I’m starting to think this MLB investigation was led by Pres. Trump.
So, I get the Braves broke the rules, but do the representatives of these respective players not know the rules? Why weren’t they punished, or even brought up in this report?
They are not under the direct governance of MLB, would be my guess. Atlanta and their front office are.
I wonder when some facts will be forthcoming in this matter. To date we have heard a lot about this matter but there is nothing factual that has been shown to the public, so how can anyone say whether the punishment fits the alleged or asserted infraction?
Look at MLB’s statement in the Coppy lifetime ban thread. It’s somewhat detailed
This had to have been going on before this one draft class. You don’t go from playing by the rules to completely pissing on the rules in one class. I mean it sounds like an entire draft class was signed illegally. What greed too. Best system in baseball and they are out there begging to be caught and lose their careers. Glad they banned him for life. Do all other teams do it? Maybe, they are certainly not alone. But I think those that do break the rules for one guy. They gotta find the extra money to get their guy. But nobody is out there just signing guys left and right like this. None of the people involved stopped and thought this has gotten out of hand we are going to get caught? Crazy to me
That escalated quickly.
I think the part of the article where they admit that pretty much all the teams do it, and only the Braves are being punished for it, really sums it all up. If the NFL suddenly announced ‘The Patriots engaged in tremendous Holding penalties last year, we’re taking away a dozen players from their team’, it’d be basically the same deal as what MLB is doing to the Braves. They’re just using this as an excuse to take some of their players away. The fair thing to do would be to punish all the teams equally, and hit them all with some kind of fine or something, not take players away. This is just terrible.
they do not say all teams do it
quit trying to excuse what they did
the braves got off easy.
its thinking like that, that got them punished
its exactly thinking like that
Ok, so we are basically shut out of the international market until 2022… time to really load up on scouting domestic talent. There are always non drafted signings who mature and surprise everyone. We will need to make up the talent deficit, so time to place our emphasis on scouting where it can help the most, here at home, and just reload
Hate to see this happen. Brave’s have so much history. Feel bad for them my friends, I just feel bad for them.