APRIL 19: Texas has formally announced the signing.
MARCH 6: The Rangers have agreed to terms with Cuban outfielder Julio Pablo Martinez, reports Ben Badler of Baseball America. The touted 21-year-old prospect, who became eligible to sign today, will receive a $2.8MM signing bonus, which will fully deplete the remainder of Texas’ 2017-18 international bonus pool.
Due to his age and lack of professional experience, Martinez was not eligible to sign as a professional. He’ll receive a minor league contract in addition to that $2.8MM bonus and join the Rangers as one of the game’s more touted prospects. Badler notes that Martinez will slot in at No. 60 overall on BA’s updated Top 100 prospect list. That places him two spots behind countryman Luis Robert, who in the final season of the 2012-16 collective bargaining agreement signed with the White Sox for a reported $26MM bonus that came with a 100 percent luxury tax under the previous international signing rules.
The discrepancy between the cost of acquisition for two somewhat comparable prospects is fairly staggering and also underscores the manner in which the latest CBA has restricted clubs from spending on amateur talent. Under the previous agreement, teams could make the tactical decision to exceed their league-allotted bonus pools by more than 15 percent in exchange for a two-year ban from signing international amateurs for anything more than $300K apiece. Many teams, including the Cubs, Rangers, Rays, Red Sox, Yankees, Reds, Dodgers and Padres, among others, were willing to make that trade-off in exchange for signing splurges that completely shattered their pools but also provided an immediate talent infusion to their respective prospect pipelines.
Now, the league and union have agreed to a hard cap on international amateurs, and no club is allotted more than $5.75MM at the onset of a given international signing period. While teams can trade for up to an additional 75 percent of their initial pool allotment, the strategy of aggressive spending on the international front is not one that teams can employ anymore — at least not with the previously acceptable levels of vigor. The now-finite level of resources teams can utilize on the international market only makes those funds more coveted — particularly among rebuilding/retooling clubs.
Digression aside, the Rangers will add an athletic young center fielder to their ranks when the deal is finalized. Martinez will become the team’s third-ranked prospect, Badler notes, trailing only Willie Calhoun and Leody Taveras. The left-handed-hitting, left-handed-throwing Martinez hit .333/.469/.498 with six homers, 11 doubles, two triples and 24 steals (in 29 attempts) during his most recent professional effort in Cuba. More impressively, he drew 52 walks that season against just 30 strikeouts in 264 plate appearances. He also appeared in 57 games and tallied 255 plate appearances in the 2017 Can-Am Association — the same independent league that was previously home to big leaguers Chris Colabello, Andrew Albers, Craig Breslow, Steve Delabar and Tim Adleman, among others — where he hit .297/.345/.449 with seven homers and 20 steals.
Badler notes in today’s piece that Martinez’s present level of development should allow him to head to Class-A Advanced or Double-A. He’s also expanded on the talented young outfielder in a pair of prior columns — both of which those looking to learn more about Martinez will want to check out.
Nice!
This is the most astoundingly stupid drafting system in all of pro sports. Congrats MLB!
Better than the nba
Nothing is worst that the nba
It severely curtails spending. Which is what 23 (or more) of the 30 owners want. Blame the owners.
or blame the players association to agreeing to it, as they dont care much about players who arent yet in the majors.
Robert got almost 4 times as much as the top pick of the draft gets. Martinez’ bonus slots in around pick #22 of last years draft.
still, Martinez gets enough money to last a long time if he plays it right, but still has plenty of incentive, and the opportunity to go be successful and make a ton more.
More realistic to blame the fans for wanting their small-market teams to have a competitive shot against the massive revenue clubs
That is the reason rules like this exist
What is ridiculous is what the players union agreed to in the 2017 CBA. The union basically ‘traded’ changes to qualifying offer FA’s (ie no longer being tied to losing a 1st round draft pick) for the new hard caps on amateur players (which i actually kind of agree with) and the ‘pseudo’ salary cap tied to the luxury tax rules …
Only 15-25 (max) players get QO’s per year … and they gave the highest earners of their union a massive benefit that is being paid for by the other 1000 players..
The union only has themselves to blame
Why would anyone expect the union to start caring about non-unionized players all of a sudden?
I agree. It seems unfair to US kids too. The top amateur players get their payday, but the rest get next to nothing in comparison to first rounders and international signings. I am not against anyone getting the most that they can. Good for them. The system needs a complete revamp. Have a pre-draft period where any amateur, domestic of international, can sign with any club for any amount and cap it at Say 1mil for argument sake. then have the draft as normal with both international and domestic amateurs with the signing bonus being at the discretion of player and team. The players looking for pay days hold out for the draft. Those who don’t want to play for a specific team can take less money and choose which team. (JD Drew refused to sign with Philly). Not perfect but better than what they have. Teams have too much control. International players choose what club to sign with and established college players are at the mercy of the draft where they end up. It would balance the talent distribution before free agency.
The money given is equivalent to a middle high draft pick for a player who has tools.
No big surprise here
Does anyone know what his MLB comps are?
Maybe a faster version of Tommy Pham? Similar career numbers, Pham a little more powerful and Martinez is a little faster.
Some have said Curtis Granderson during his circuit in Detroit
Ricky Henderson
I’m hearing Ted Williams, Tony Gwynn, Kirby Puckett, Ryan Flaherty
Yeah J.P. Martinez
Congrats to the Rangers! Awesome addition to the team!
Agree.. nice move
It seemed like he was available for a whole 10 seconds
Yeah he wasn’t aware that free agents aren’t signing until the season starts.
Only free agents that go against the 197 limit are having trouble getting jobs.
This is by far the best offseason addition the rangers have made
Hardly. Lincecum ftw.
Good for the Rangers.
Any reason why it took a month and a half to “officially” announce this? It appears from your earlier post that the deal was agreed to back in March.
I hope this doesn’t sound racist, and as least stereotypical as possible, but age verification? With the amount of INT money invested into him, I imagine a month long vetting process?
Martinez is highly touted, no doubt, heard his name many times throughout the off-season. Ohtani is doing things that haven’t been done in 100 years (hit + pitch) but this isn’t a bad conciliation prize for missing out on Ohtani. (Texas had most INT pool availible to sign Ohtani @3.5m, and using the rest on Julio Pablo Martinez isn’t a bad get)
Ofc there’s miscellaneous things like physical, but best guess would be identity / age verification vetting.
Pure speculation on my part; I don’t even know if due diligence for age / identity prospects can take month+ without it being leaked.
“ . . . this isn’t a bad conciliation prize . . . “
Or even a consolation prize. Sorry, x, you know I gotta do it.
“Age verification”?
Possibly, but you wouldn’t expect that to take a month and a half. Either the team trusts whatever paperwork exists in Cuba or they don’t. Not sure how much investigating/verifying they could do.
I was thinking that they may have found something in his physical exam they wanted to clear up first. Either that or the team needed the extra time to come up with the cash. That does happen sometimes even on the MLB level. (See: Los Mets borrowing $ from MLB to meet payroll, less than ten years ago.)
Cuba has, basically, the best health care system in the Western hemisphere. Their records are meticulous; US doctors travel to Cuba regularly to learn from them. The country that has had the problems with age verification is the Dominican.
Mat Latos just signed in the Can-Am league.
Oh snap, Rangers trade for catcher Sanchez and sign FA outfielder Martinez! Still dreaming…
P.ATHETIC COWARD
Wish the Os would infuse their organization with this kind of talent