The Red Sox have traded minor league outfielder Lorenzo Cedrola to the Reds in exchange for international bonus pool space, both teams announced. Neither announcement revealed the size of the pool allotment changing hands, though international bonus allotments must be traded in increments of $250K.
For the Reds, it’s not a surprise to see them trading away some pool space. The Cincinnati organization is still in the maximum penalty bracket from the previous collective bargaining agreement, meaning they can’t sign any single international amateur for a bonus of greater than $300K. Boston is under no such exemption and will use the additional funds to bolster their haul on the 2018-19 international signing market, which opened today and will run through June 15, 2019.
Cedrola, 20, signed with the Red Sox in February 2015 out of Venezuela and has since risen to the Class-A South Atlantic League, where he’s currently repeating the level. He’s hitting .318/.350/427 through 229 plate appearances in his second run through that level, and while he hasn’t homered, he’s hit 17 doubles and three triples along the way. Cedrola has minimal power but has swiped 65 bases (in 91 tries) through 262 minor league games.
Baseball America rated Cedrola as the Red Sox’ No. 24 prospect in the 2016-17 offseason, calling him an “excellent athlete and plus runner” while also noting his physical limitations and lack of home run power. Cedrola rarely walks but has strong contact skills — career 4.3 percent walk rate and 11.9 percent strikeout rate — and BA notes that with his speed and average arm, he has the profile of at least a reserve outfielder.
You think they could send the Reds Rice for pool space before he opts outta Boston.
Good joke. I like. Very nice
Does it seem strange that you can be penalized for something but still be able to gain an advantage from it? The only reason I can think of to be able to trade pool space is so that it can be used (spent) on players and thus keep spending high. The union must be in favor of this.
Agree on both points. A penalized team gets to trade money it can’t spend and pick up a nice looking prospect. Hoping it was for a significant sum given Boston’s weak system. #24 for the Sox is still a decent type prospect.
The Reds would probably be better served signing 30 players for $300,000 than getting a guy repeating the SALLY League, but it beats getting nothing, I guess.
One team in the penalty phase last year signed 44 players.
Maybe, but Cedrola slahed .285/.322/.387 his first time through the SALLY League and was 2.5 years younger than the average player in the circuit. This season, as a player 1.3 years younger than the average SALLY player, Cedrola has slashed .318/.350/.427. I would think he’ll soon be in High-A ball, which is impressive for a 20-year-old.
Don’t think anything wrong with him regardless. When he played for Ft Myers in the GCL back in ’16, saw him 2 times when we went down to visit and he looked more than fine. Outstanding arm and good glove. Made 1 throw from from warning track to 2b as remember that was on target and he was just 18YO at the time.
Everytime see him ranked at soxprsopects so low? Shake my head. Think this kid has a decent chance still and so young.
He’s 20 years old. Not every 20 year old rips up the minors. Give the kid a chance. Stats look good to other than the caught stealing rate. Does have speed so he can probably be taught. Old type leadoff hitter.
The Reds can spend the money. They just can’t spend it for more than $300K at a time.
They’re choosing, at least with a portion of their pool, to use that to acquire Cedrola rather than to take the $250K, $500K (whatever it is) and throw a bunch of smaller-scale signings at the wall to see what sticks.
The Union doesn’t care about the international amateurs, which is precisely why their earning power was absolutely decimated under the new CBA.
Actually, I’ll disagree here.
The international players didn’t want anything to do with a draft. They wanted players to be able to “choose their employer”. Which is what ushered in the hard caps.
I get the fact that there will no longer be a Chapman or Abreu (can’t think of a young player with a huge contract from days ago) signing for young international players but saying 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or more million for a young international player is decimation, I feel is little extreme. A million dollars is still a huge amount for most people and especially many international players. Hope MLB puts them in touch with a money manager but I guess there might be some liability issues there.
The reason why mlb wanted a draft is the buscons well some of them aren’t exactly on the up and up. They take big % of the kids signing bonus and make shady deals. For example see the Redsox losing Carlos Martinez.
Different ways of doing business down there with bribes. The draft certainly drastically affected the amount of talent in PR. I don’t really have an answer to fix it.
If mlb was willing to invest in pro leagues for those kids to showcase their talent than maybe you could get rid of the buscons. I doubt that will happen.
The Associated Press reports that the Red Sox acquired $1.5 million in bonus space in the trade..
This is an interesting trade. Cederola is a “legitimate prospect” albeit one with extreme limitations (no power, plate discipline) so the Sox must have some serious plans for the international spending $ this season. Additionally it does seem like a little bit of a loophole that the Reds can trade their $ despite being in the $300K/signing penalty. That’s a rule I didn’t realize existed – but is a positive (I think anyway) for teams who do hit the penalty as it allows them to acquire some legitimate prospects whereas they probably wouldn’t have been able to sign any for $300K or less. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a more typical model for teams trying to rebuild their farm systems – overspending one season then using their bonus pool $ the following year (while in the penalty) to acquire additional assets from other clubs.
So basically the Sox dealt Lorenzo Cedrola for money to sign the next Lorenzo Cedrola…
The Reds have picked up some interesting prospects this way. Last summer, Cincinnati traded pool space to the Red Sox for outfielder/first baseman Nick Longhi and to the Braves for speedy outfielder Randy Ventura.