The Twins have voided their contract with young Dominican shortstop Jelfry Marte, according to a report from Ben Badler of Baseball America. The 16-year-old had agreed to a $3MM bonus.
Marte evidently did not pass his physical, with Badler citing a vision problem as the basis for the Twins’ action. The youngster is now a free agent and has begun once again showcasing for potential suitors.
Entering the most recent July 2 signing period, Marte was viewed as a “true shortstop,” as Badler phrased it. While Marte’s glovework and speed on the bases tantalized, there were some questions about his future at the plate. Those interested in reading more can check out Badler’s full and excellent coverage (subscription link).
Today’s news is fairly notable not only because it throws Marte back into the pool of open-market talent. It also leaves the Twins with a big chunk of international spending to work with even as other organizations are mostly tapped out.
With the refund, Minnesota is just one of three teams with over $3MM in capacity.* That leaves the club in a better position than most rivals as just about every team in baseball lines up to pursue Japanese star Shohei Ohtani. The Twins could utilize those funds to chase Ohtani, trade them to another organization that wishes to do so, or instead deploy them for some of the remaining international talent. (Badler cites a few intriguing possibilities, including Cuban outfielder Julio Pablo Martinez, who is attempting to make it to the majors.)
*This post initially stated that the savings from Marte’s voided contract would add to the team’s previously reported $3MM+ in available spending capacity. As BA’s J.J. Cooper notes in a tweet, the contract rescission is actually what creates the bulk of that availability.
JJ Cooper is saying that the Twins only have 3m after voiding the contract. Is he wrong or does money saved in voided contracts not get put back into the teams pool?
The 3 mil plus figure that was reported for the Twins already had this accounted for, this contract was voice weeks ago and just not reported publicly.
let’s go Ohtani to the twins
Even with all that extra cash, I still doubt Otani ends up in Minnesota.
And Marte goes to a non-winner between NYY and TEX.
Ohtani is supposedly close to Darvish and looks up to him so if Darvish goes to Minnesota, that could be a potential pull in that direction. I’m not saying it’s a for sure thing, but anything can help in recruiting a top free agent.
If the Twins sign both Darvish and Ohtani I would be shocked, smiling ear to ear yes, but shocked nonetheless.
Vision problem nothing glasses couldn’t fix or solution to sign ohtani
Does his being a free agent require teams to still use int’l bonus money?
Yes
Are there any good lists of who has what left, especially teams limited to $300 K.
Someone’s going to have too much left over.
Rangers $3,535,000
Yankees $3.25 million
Twins $3,245,000
Pittsburgh ($2,266,750),
Miami ($1.74 million)
Seattle ($1,570,500).
Philadelphia ($900,000),
Milwaukee ($765,000),
Arizona ($731,250),
Baltimore ($660,000),
Boston ($462,000)
Tampa Bay ($440,500).
Twelve teams are capped at $300,000 Atlanta, the Chicago Cubs and White Sox, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas City, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland, St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington.
Detroit ($159,500),
Angels ($150,000),
New York Mets ($105,000)
Toronto ($50,000),
Cleveland and Colorado ($10,000 apiece).
Not trying to troll but, I feel bad for Cleveland and Colorado
Thanks.
I still don’t know what the other 12 have remaining.
Because I want to know what they have remaining, regardless the Ohtani sweepstakes.
Go get him, Coppy!
lol
That’s either a very happy coincidence for the Twins, or this kid really got hosed. What possible vision problems could he have which couldn’t be corrected, short of something extremely serious that had not previously manifested itself?
Just FYI for your happy coincidence comment, this was done weeks ago. It’s just being reported now for some reason. It makes it look shady now, but no one knew that Otani was even coming for sure until five days ago.
I do wonder what the vision thing was though.
In general, nothing has actually changed dollar wise. The Twins still have the same dollar amount that was reported yesterday or the day before. We just didn’t know why the dollar amount was that high. They would have only had 200K or so only if this guy was still signed.
Probably got tommy pham syndrome
There are all kinds of “vision things” that aren’t easily corrected, the most common one being cataracts, which usually require surgery and still leave less than perfect vision. Glasses and contacts don’t correct every flaw in the eyes.
From what I heard on SiriusXM a couple of weeks ago, he is 20/100 in one eye. That means he could only read the 2nd line on a vision chart with that eye. 20/20 means you can read the 8th line. Not sure if that is correctable with glasses, but I’m not an optometrist. It was severe enough that the Twins didn’t feel he was worth $3 million.
Maitian?
Seems like a guy the pirates could go after. They have the money left, and are very active internationally.
I think Ohtani would prefer to go to a big market team, so even though Minnesota can give him more money I doubt he’d go there. Texas or New York can off the market and the money
others have reported the exact opposite saying he wanted to avoid the big market. don’t put any sick in either he will go where it goes for him.
Something smells off here. How can no one have known about this voiding, and everyone known that the Twins had that money freed up? Surely the discrepancy in money available vs money spent should have been caught in a year with all this talk of Ohtani. I don’t get it.
It’s a reporting issue, not a transactional issue.