Shortstop Yolbert Sanchez has left Cuba and has been cleared by Major League Baseball to sign with teams beginning on Feb. 5, Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs report. The 21-year-old (22 in March) will be subject to MLB’s international bonus pool system.
Sanchez’s stats in his limited professional experience won’t wow anyone — he’s a .297/.338/.345 hitter in 435 plate appearances — but McDaniel and Longenhagen nonetheless paint him as a likely seven-figure bonus recipient due to his raw speed, glovework at shortstop and arm strength — each of which are considered by scouts to be anywhere from above average to plus. Their report notes that scouts view him as the type of prospect who’ll typically command a bonus between $2-4MM.
Certainly, that bodes well for the Orioles, who still have upwards of $6MM in their international bonus pool after whiffing on prospects Victor Victor Mesa, Victor Mesa Jr. and Sandy Gaston when the trio signed early in the 2018-19 offseason (the Mesa brothers with the Marlins; Gaston with the Rays).
Of course, the mere fact that the Orioles presently have the most money at their disposal doesn’t by any means make Baltimore a lock to sign Sanchez. The O’s, after all, had the ability to make larger offers to the Mesa brothers and Gaston but did not ultimately ink any of the trio. It’s also possible that they don’t view Sanchez as a prospect who should command such an investment — or at least that they don’t like him to the same extent as another organization with millions remaining in its bonus pool. Beyond that, Sanchez could technically opt to wait until July 2 to sign, at which point bonus pools would reset and present him with a vastly larger list of suitors.
While Baltimore is the runaway leader in remaining pool space, McDaniel and Longenhagen write that the Dodgers, Cubs and Phillies are among the teams with the most resources remaining. MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez adds the Cardinals to the mix, noting that St. Louis has an estimated $1.85MM remaining in its pool. Sanchez pegs the Dodgers at about $1.4MM, the Phillies at roughly $1MM and the Cubs, Rangers and Red Sox in the $750-800K range. Sanchez will hold workouts for teams later this week in the Dominican Republic, per Fangraphs’ report.
Is he good?
There’s a link in the first paragraph that will be able to tell you what you want to know about him…
he’s a defenvise stud…not worth 5-6 signing bonus so it sounds like an Os deal..lol
Sounds like Adeiny Hechavarria based off the scouting report
No. Sounds better. This kid supposedly can run like a deer. Sounds like a faster Jose Iglesias.
But is he faster than Cool Papa Bell!?
Flicks the light switch and is under his blankets before the light goes out!
……..Faster than Speeding Bullet
So you’re saying he runs into cars on the road?
downvoted
Is that all you have to contribute? A comment announcing your voting action on seemingly every single article?
cant appreciate a joke?
I’m sure he can but I wasn’t exactly rolling on the ground laughing when he said he was downvoting either…
Youre gonna feel bad when we find out its either a 98 yr old baseball legend who doesn’t bode well with technology, or a “special needs person”, who doesnt exactly understand the on-line. Dont let pebbles keep you from seeing the mountain.
Clepto….steal some useful knowledge to others.
I agree
Thats not that good.
Its unknown what hand he bats with? Talk about mystery
Lol – I think Maybe BaseballReference should have held off on creating a page for him until they knew which way he hit, threw (assuming RH seeing as he’s a SS) and could fill in any of the age/team info! hahaha Though I guess to be fair given that they don’t even have any of that info — that they do have his stats is kind of impressive (I suppose – Silver Linings right!?)
An international man of mystery!
Maybe he’s in on Machado.
he’ll use his signing bonus to sign machado
Second-most interesting man in the world.
Righty, but has 0 pop. I saw him play here.
Interesting that he has blazing speed but hasn’t really been successful at stealing bases. It’s probably safe to assume he may be older as well, as many of the Cubans shave off a year. Pass on this one at 2M.
What Cubans shave off a year?
“Many”
Roberto herandez
although he was from dr
Many Ramirez?
Manny is from the Dominican
Cespedes moves around like he is 50
Orlando and Livan Hernandez
Jose Contreras
Don’t forget Albert In . Reports were he may have been 10 years older than what he said when he left St Louis and luckily signed with the Angels. Talking about a lucky wiff for St Louis
Fidel Castro is ‘away from his desk’.
You do realize Pujols moved to New York with his father when he was 16 before moving to Missouri two months later? He also went to a junior college in Kansas before he was drafted by the Cardinals.
Based on the below replies, I’m still hearing that this is a Dominican issue, not an issue with Cuba.
I’ve never heard of a Cuban born player with an age lying issue, though I’m sure it’s happened.
El duque.
Rey ordonez too but a lot of thy was pre 9/11 when the standard of proof was weaker
I thought a lot of them were cuban but it turns out they are all Dominican.
Defensively he makes a remarkably high number of plays per nine innings. That’s all I can read into the limited statistics available at Baseball Reference.
@MLBTR, have you guys considered creating a resource page where you keep track of things, such as how much each team has available in International Spending? Or how much you believe a team has left to spend in free agency based on your projecting payroll series and what Cot’s has down as payroll numbers?
Would be a neat feature to add
Cool story bro. Get on it.
Pirates? He can’t be any worse than Erik Gonzalez or Kevin Newman
He might start in Minors.
Low minors; A ball
And yet somehow they will. The Bucs haven’t had a quality shortstop in over 25 years. Jay Bell……but we can hope.
You are forgetting Jack Wilson. A highlight reel defensively And silver slugger award winner.
I was at Newman’s professional debut in Morgantown, WV
Was it a success?
Buyer beware! So many failures by more highly rated Cuban players.
Too bad the White Sox still can’t spend over $300K on international signings. Otherwise we could have Yolmer Sanchez and Yolbert Sanchez on the same team.
sounds like a very expensive wild card, especially given he’s not particularly destroyed the a-ball-like pitching of the Serie Nacional.
Last one off the island turn the lights out…