12:09pm: The Mesas are planning on hosting a showcase for all 30 teams in the near future, Sanchez further reports. He lists the Orioles ($6.5MM), Marlins ($4.3MM), Rays ($3.6MM) and Dodgers ($2.78MM) as the teams with the most remaining money to spend.
Of course, as we saw last offseason in the case of Shohei Ohtani, that picture can quickly shift should those teams (or any other interested suitor) pursue additional international spending allotments on the trade market. The eight clubs that under the $300K limitation mentioned below would likely be particularly amenable to parting with some pool space in exchange for minor league talent.
11:19am: Cuban outfielder Victor Victor Mesa and his younger brother, Victor Mesa Jr., have been declared free agents by Major League Baseball and are now eligible to sign with a big league team, reports Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com (via Twitter). The brothers left Cuba in pursuit of Major League contracts back in May. Neither player meets MLB’s minimum age (25) or professional experience (six years) requirement to be considered a professional. As such, they’ll each be subject to international bonus pools.
While both are prospects of note, the elder Mesa brother is widely considered to be the top talent on this year’s international class, offering elite speed, a plus arm and a generally strong performance in his limited time as a professional in the Cuban National Series. At 22 years of age, he could already be advanced enough for a placement in Class-A Advanced or Double-A, per Baseball America’s Ben Badler, who tabs him as an elite center field defender and potential top-of-the-order bat.
In his most recent full season of play in Cuba, Victor Victor batted a hefty .354/.399/.539 with seven homers, 40 steals, 17 walks and just 19 strikeouts in 290 plate appearances. Scouting information on the 17-year-old Mesa Jr. is considerably more sparse, though he’ll presumably have no shortage of interest around the league. The brothers are the sons of Victor Mesa, a baseball legend in Cuba who enjoyed a 19-year career and has also served as the manager of Team Cuba in the World Baseball Classic on multiple occasions.
To this point, the Orioles and Marlins have been the two teams most heavily connected to Victor Victor Mesa. That pair still boasts the largest remaining signing pools, with the Orioles said at last check to have the largest pool available. And while the Orioles have a long history of sitting out the international amateur market, that philosophy has changed in recent months. Longtime owner Peter Angelos has largely ceded oversight of the club to his sons, John and Lou, and general manager Dan Duquette plainly stated after trading Manny Machado that the organization intended to begin investing in international amateurs.
As of early August, the Orioles’ max offering sat at a hefty $8.25MM following the acquisition of international funds in several summer trades, though they traded $750K of that sum away in a deal with the Phillies and have announced a handful of international prospect signings since that time as well. None of the prospects they signed were high-profile in nature, though, and the Marlins’ pool is lagging considerably behind at $4.35MM as of that Aug. 1 update.
Notably, there are eight teams — the Reds, A’s, Nationals, Braves, White Sox, Astros, Cardinals and Padres — that are in the international “penalty box” after shattering previous spending pools by more than 15 percent and are thus ineligible to sign a player for more than $300K. That, presumably, takes them out of the running in this picture.
It should also be noted that the 2017-21 CBA eliminated the possibility of exceeding the league-allotted bonus pool by any sum; teams are now hard-capped, though they can acquire up to 75 percent of their initial allotment in trades with other clubs. Full details on international signing rules can be seen in our most recent international prospect primer. To this point, the Blue Jays, Indians, Yankees and Mets have been among the more aggressive-spending teams on the 2018-19 international market, leaving them with relatively depleted pools.
Always remember: Acuna wasn’t considered a top 20 prospect in his international class
Sure. As with the domestic draft — and even more so, given the more limited scouting availability — there are going to be under-the-radar players who emerge from relatively minimal investments. Jose Altuve signed for a $15K bonus.
That said, I don’t think that has much to do with the Mesa brothers — particularly Victor Victor, whom scouts have had the opportunity to watch in the WBC, while playing in the independent Can-Am League, etc. He’s a fairly known commodity to MLB scouts — at least as much as any 21-year-old prospect can be.
Oh I know it has nothing to do with the brothers. More of a reminder how fun international prospects are
There are many Cuban imports who have signed for big money but not amounted to much (or at least not nearly what was hoped): Hector Olivera (6 years, $62.5 million), Yasmany Tomas (6 years, $68.5 million), Yaisel Sierra (6 years, $30 million) come to mind, and Yoan Lopez and Roberto Baldoquin aren’t looking much better.
The jury’s still out on Yoan Moncada ($63 million net), but the fact that he’s leading the league in strikeouts might not bode well.
We could argue for days about how good Yasiel Puig is or isn’t, but I think it’s fair to say the Dodgers hoped he’d be better when they committed $42 million to him as a 21-year-old.
I guess the good news with the Mesas is that to sign them, a team would only have to commit whatever signing bonus it would cost, along with any penalty incurred for going over their pool allotment — is that correct? The Tomas and Olivera deals were particularly brutal because they weren’t considered rookies, if I understand correctly.
Don’t forget Rusney Castillo, 7 yrs/$72.5M
It’s a hard cap now and so they can’t go over that number. There can’t be any more of the deals you cited under the current system. I think Puig has worked out better than you think; he’s not a superstar but he’s a popular player and the Dodgers have made their investment back on him. He’s been worth aroun 20 wins in his career, and even if you believe the low end of the estimate for the cost of a win on the open market as 6-7 million dollars, they’e gotten more than that out of Puig in value.
What’s our vector vector, Victor Victor?
That was funny back in May…
May of 1981
Based on the response I guess I’m glad someone else beat me to this
Bet Victor likes Little Caesars too
O’s better jump on VVMesa… gotta replace their CF soon, like next year ? Hope for a = to Nats Soto or Yanks Andújar or Torres !
Why would they replace Cedric Mullins?!
Anyhow, let’s do this O’s!!!!
Wait this is the Os. When do they sign international guy?
And why wouldn’t they bring Jones back? He’s a franchise player, great citizen, wants to watch his kids go to school and just bought Ripken’s house…
All of that might be true but Jones isn’t a CF anymore.
Hopefully he doesn’t google “Orioles record” before actually signing
It’s like the Dudley Boys. Dudley Dudley, Snot Dudley, Dances with Dudley etc.
Sign Guy Dudley….. and Joel ‘The girls like to call me Fred Flinstone because they love the way I make their beds rock’ Gertner
He’s no John John Florence.
Should be a crime to have to go to the Orioles in order to get top dollar.
I though the Orioles had some objection to signing international free agents?
Their owner, Peter Angelos, has generally been against it in the past. He’s largely ceded control of the team to his sons, John and Lou, however, and Dan Duquette said when declaring the start of a rebuild that the team planned to begin investing in the international market.
I probably should’ve included a note on that in the post. I’ll tuck one in there.
Changed their position on that earlier this summer. Have been stockpiling cash and are ready to go.
“Stockpiling cash” is a bit of a stretch. They’ve acquired quite a bit, but they did also trade $750K to the Phillies for a 23-year-old, 1B-only who has yet to even reach A-ball. Frankly, that move still utterly baffles me, though clearly the organization sees something it likes in Jack Zoellner.
They do still have the most money to offer to Victor Victor (or any other prospect), but it’s still a head-scratcher all the same.
Well, yes, aside from the baffling move with Phils, they have a lot to spend.
Hopefully Larry, his brother Daryl, and his other brother Daryl are next. And yes, I’m aware that most of you are too young to get that reference.
That one Daryl was out of shape, so I’d sign the other one. Larry? Too old.
The one Daryl and Zane Smith have never been seen together. Just sayin’.
Newhart!
Best series finale EVER!
The Orioles will somehow screw this up.
^
They’ll find a flaw in his medicals.
Why didn’t their dad call them Victor I and Victor II like Goerge Forman did with his kids?
The real question is why aren’t they both Victor Jr?
Marlins should go after the older one like its “Pan Caliente”
O’s should jump in on Victor Victor, if for nothing else than PR. Actually with some aggressive-type signings, they’re not as far off as people think. Their system is chronically underrated, and right now probably falls into the #15-20 range.
They’ll have to be creative, but I can see them being competitive around 2021.
That is perhaps the first reasonable take on the O’s I’ve heard in some time. I’d of course hold off on most aggressive signings until there’s a clearer picture of what they currently have. Signing Victor Victor on the other hand makes sense.
Any inclination that the brothers want to sign with the same team? Maybe a slight discount on VV if a team also signs Jr?
Meh.
Just like the Gurriel brothers! Oh wait…
Hot Take: Both are going to the Angels
Lol Daddy has an ego complex.
This is the part that angers me the most about the Padres going crazy internationally in 16’. Yeah they stock pilled a bunch of prospects then, but now that decision is showing its deficiencies.
First: Which people fail to talk about is that the Padres were the runner up to acquiring Ohtani. Even with minimum 300k to spend on a player. Could you imagine how much more enticing a 1 million dollar offer would have been after meeting with Hideo Nomo, his former trainer from the Nippon Ham Fighters who now works with the Padres, and general manager AJ Preller who did the whole Ohtani speech in Japanese himself infront of ownership.
I don’t care what anyone says, if the Padres had more money to offer, Ohtani would have chosen them.
Secondly: The Mesa brothers. When you have the 3rd worst record in the game and these enormously talented International players become available. You should be all over them. Unfortunately paying past debt for a spending spree gets this recoil.
Even if that Spending spree guarantees LHP Adrian Morejon (crown jewel of that period for SD), OF Jorge Ona, SS Gabriel Arias and company eventually become big leaguers, it’s still a tough pill to swallow to watch all this talent fly by and be able to do nothing about it.
“Which people fail to talk about is that the Padres were the runner up to acquiring Ohtani.” Don’t recall Ohtani or his agent saying that….source?
I heard a lot of Padres fans saying that for the reasons you cited but that is pure speculation.
link to google.com
Your statement…”The runnerup”….meaning his 2nd choice. From the article which like your statement was pure speculation….. “It’s unclear how many other teams are in the running for Ohtani. But it appears his preference is for the West Coast, with the Dodgers, Giants and Mariners reportedly still in the mix.”
Merriam-Webster
Definition of runner-up
plural runners-up play \ˈrə-nərz-ˌəp, ˌrə-nərz-ˈəp\ also runner-ups
: the competitor that does not win first place in a contest; especially : one that finishes in second place
The broad definition of “runner up” is anyone who didn’t finish 1’st which would include all the teams who pursued him but when you say “the runnerup” that changes it and as I said neither Ohtani or his agent never indicated the Pads were his second choice. Your link did nothing to change that.
Adrian Morejon, Michael Baez, Luis Patino. The padres went big and wound up with some great pieces.
The padres have so many OFs its a logjam already. And thats not counting all the ones working through the minors currently.
I suppose it’s now hindsight, but where would Ohtani play in SD? Do you really think they’d put him in the outfield on days he didn’t pitch? That would seem like a recipe for possible disastrous injury. anyway and then after his UCL snapped his season as a hitter would just be over completely. Even if he has the TJ right after the season, he’ll be able to come back at some point next season as a hitter but he wouldn’t in San Diego.
who did the Mets sign in international market… did I miss something?
Yeh, another couple of Ben Badler superstars.
Elite arm, elite bat, elite speed, elite everything! WOW!
The key with the elder brother is his “limited time as a professional” !
They probably only want major league offers as usual, asking for huge money to sign! Ask the Red Sox what they think about their Rusney signing for $40Million to play for Pawtucket!
Except that Rusney got free agent money while the Mesa brothers will get international money. Hence the disparity in contracts.
They can’t sign major league offers. Neither has enough service time in Cuba. They get a signing bonus and begin their careers on a minor league deal until they are called up to the majors. No one can sign for $40 million anymore. The most they can sign for is $6.5 million from the O’s which you would have known had you read the article.
You can say that again.
Miami is probably the best place for the Mesa Brother. Great location with Little Havana, warm weather, Cuban population, and more. Sure the money isn’t the same, but they would get millions AND live comfortable.