Cuban two-way prospect Oscar Colas has defected in hopes of landing a major league contract, Jeff Passan of ESPN tweets. Francys Romero of Las Mayores first reported on Colas’ defection.
The 21-year-old Colas is an outfielder/pitcher who most recently played with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan, where he slashed .300/.353/.511 with 12 home runs in 295 plate appearances in 2019. As a left-handed pitcher, Colas is capable of hitting 95 mph, according to Passan.
It remains to be seen whether Colas will emerge as a two-way threat in the majors a la Shohei Ohtani, but nevertheless, it’s likely he’ll get “significant interest” from major league teams, per Passan. Colas could wait until at least July to sign with a big league club, however, as there appears to be less money available to him now that the current international signing period – which began July 2 – is almost a half-year old.
Padres!
Jays!!!
Interesting sounding player. Seems like any team would be happy to get their hands on him for the right price. I’ve never heard of him until now but this league definitely needs more Ohtani style 2-way players. I hope it all works out for him and he becomes a very productive MLB player. It would be great for him and the league.
You’d think the onus would be on teams to develop more two way players now…..
The reason mlb created a cap on international talent is exactly for this reason. After the white Sox dropped some 50+ million on Luis Robert MLB intervened to protect the owners financial interest so deals like that never happen again. They do it at the expense of small market teams too. Reds where overpaying players so they’d sign in cincy but no longer have that luxury w cap. MLB is a business first designed to make billionaires richer
Luis Robert just signed that deal. He previously had a signing bonus that this new contract takes over. An international cap protects smaller clubs who can’t shell out limitless amounts on their international side.
He signed for 26 million with a 26 million penalty for going over your limit. So white Sox spent 52 million to sign him. Ohtani was a better prospect and got 2.3. He lost 10s of millions due to rule change
The penalty was 100% of what they went OVER the the $5.75 million threshold, not the entire $26 million they signed him for. They spent about $47 million to get Robert, .
Both has advantages. On the one Hand Teams like the Dodgers have spent tons of money internationally and smaller teams have a hard time competing with that. On the other hand those very low bonuses also make it tougher for small market teams because if the money is the same and the player has to decide between LA or NY and some “cow village” (no offense intended) the smaller market teams have a hard time convincing players to come there.
The international draft that will come will solve that problem though, although it punishes teams like the rays who have a strong international scouting finding the kids when they are 13-14 and this advantage is gone with the draft.
Your logic makes no sense. First of all, there is no “cap”. Plus, smaller market teams, like Cincy, aren’t going to spend enough money to have to worry about the luxury tax anyway. It actually helps them because it discourages the larger market teams from spending more.
It’s 4.75 mil and teams can’t go over it with out trading for other teams cap space. If that’s not a cap- what is ??
And it’s not logic- it’s fact, several times reds spent way more money than any other team would consider on an IFA to sign the player. They have 3 well overpaid players in their system today. Padres signed a slew of guys that one year and spent some 80 million. They did that by offering the most money.
The logic part is this- Reds need one of those guys to pan out. Padres need 2-3. When that happens they get the player control for six years and don’t have spend it when they player is nearly 30 at twice or thrice the rate
Patino is padres 3rd ranked prospect and is 20 and in AA. He was ranked 19 of all prospects they signed. Morejon was the highest paid and is ranked 6 in their organization
It is a hard cap now, but it wasn’t then. If you could spend more and just pay a penalty then it was a suggestion. The White Sox cap amount was $5.75 million for the 2017 J2 signing period.
Don’t think he understand the difference between the luxury tax threshold and the international signing money.
MLB didn’t intervene because of the White Sox signing Robert. MLB had announced before that signing period that it would be the last one that one that any team could sign a player over a teams slotted amount. Get your facts straight before posting something that will make you look like an idiot.
After the padres forked out some 80 million and Yoan Macado got an insane amount of money. They new Robert was coming and put an end to it. Ohtani lost 10s of millions bc of that change.
Keep standing up for Corp America though. Typical sheeple.
you want Corp America to pay less to prospects. Who are you standing up for? The teams you are mentioning aren’t the big money teams either. Cinci, Sd, Chi Sox? You didn’t mention Boston, a big money team who actually signed Moancada.
The last sentence is on-point.
I agree. But the rest is typical of the rant and drivel that is common on these comment boards.
It also is a union issue, as this cap protects current players, minor leaguers and draftees who do not get huge amounts of money upon entering the league as international players do/did..the MLBPA is looking out for their current players first with wanting this cap
Typical results when you put current/former players against the attorneys of some of the richest men in the world.
Actually the mlb created a cap on expensive international contracts much the way the NFL put a cap on draft pick contract amounts…….to in part help protect other players.
Shelling out tens of millions for players like Robert and those before made teams less willing spend big in free agency. Money is money.
And oh no they’re making 2.3 mill instead of 23 mill what ever will they do with that type of money. Gotta get the 5 bedroom house on the beach instead of the 15 one. Oh no. Let’s not pretend they make more than enough money to live comfortably.
It’s only January 3rd but this might have already won the award for most idiotic post of the year. The current international signing process is designed to keep all teams on equal footing so the small market teams have a chance to sign the top players
The new rules were already set to go in place when Robert was signed
The White Sox gave Robert somewhere in the vicinity of $25-&26 million, not $50+
Something about a penalty effectively almost doubling the amount…..
The commissioner frequently has to intervene to protect the owners from themselves…..
The Phillies have all their money to spend.
Look it up.
You can take that ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. to the bank.
Redacted!
they’ve been fraudulent though
Or flatulent?
i looked it up. As usual, you are wrong.
The Phillies signed 17 players with the $4,821,400 they had to spend in the 2019 J2 signing period. nbcsports.com/philadelphia/phillies/phillies-sign-… .
Unless they traded to get a significant amount back, they don’t have all their money to spend.
#micdrop on the #troll
Quality through quantity-Branch Ricky!
Coca Colas can fit into any team’s budget.
Or pigs tails…..
The cardinals could use him
I dont think theyve spent much, I’d love to see them make a splashy move.
Yankees!!!
Ninja Cash…Make it happen!!!
Is there a list of Cuban defectors who haven’t signed with an MLB organization yet? That would be really good to have access to.
Fidel hasn’t signed, but rumor has it he’s dead.
I’ll get confirmation from his kid in Canada.
Good news, the Reds have a 21 year old RF in the minors named Fidel Castro. I’d link his baseball-ref page but I doubt you can link here..
So he DID sign!
Guess who he was named after?
Baseball America?
I hear he has a lot of potential, and hope that he doesn’t fizzle out.
Ha Ha!
I think those stats are for the Japanese Western league, which is a minor league there. He’ll probably have to sign a minor league contract here.
Aloha ksmom, yes Colas spent the past 3 yrs in southern Japan, mostly in the Hawks highest level of minor league ball. He did come up and see some action with the main team/NPB this past season. I wish the Cubs could consider him. We’ll see. Shinnen Omedetou Gozaimasu, Happy New Year and Mahalo!
Come on Yankees! Sign Wood to a one year bounce back contract! Perfect solution for German being suspended and eating innings in the #5 spot! Low pressure and less strain on the player physically!
Wrong post lol!
Uh, yeah.
I think you made
a wrong turn at
another post…..
My periodic request for a list of MLB teams with roughly how much IFA space they have remaining.
Baseball America?
perfect fit for the angels!
I thought defectors were only allowed now if you were a celebrity or an attractive woman from Eastern Europe.
that have skills on the poles or on beds.
Not according to the current occupant of
the Case Blanca…..
Mail order brides!
Like FLOTUS!
Cuban pitcher/outfielder attempting the leap from the NPB?
I can’t think of any player who can check so many boxes in as 2020 a way as that.
He wasnt actually in the NPB. He was in the Western League. The equivalent of AAA in the US.
This smells like a perfect deal for Chaim Bloom in Boston. I believe they have a decent amount of Int’l cap money right now…let’s get it done!
Unfortunately for him, most teams prefer Pepsi to Colas
but if they ever have tasted ciego montero’s tucola, wouldn touch pepsi.
Peruvian coffee flakes
are better and no sugar.
Or that chemical based
fake sugar…..
Who?
I’d like to see Seattle take a flyer on this guy. Young, talented, maybe not far from the majors, maybe a two-way player. While the M’s do already have a decent-looking group of young outfielders, none of them are a sure bet. Neither is Colas, but adding him to the mix would seem to increase the group’s depth and add more competition. I think Seattle and other rebuilding teams should be all in when it comes to signing Colas.
Or Sarsaparillas…..
Rays Cards pretty much anyone with IBM left should be in on this guy. Rays need a new Rf if he fits that awesome.
Orioles are the favorites for him
O’s don’t do international
Uh yeah they do
They didn’t for many years, but they have the past 2 offseasons. They also have the most money left to spend right now. Not that a guy that is in the Japanese minor leagues is going to get big dollars.
One reason they suck…..
Might want to edit those numbers, Connor — colas only played 7 games for Softbank’s NPB team this year. He spent the rest of the year in the Western League, which is the NPB equivalent of the minors. Those numbers are nice, but they aren’t against top league competition.
Marlins should be at the forefront to sign this youngster.
Oscar “Tails” Colas
Not sure what the White Sox international cap space looks like in July, but they have a very strong Cuban connection and those boys can be good recruiters.
Orioles go get him!
Oscar Colás has Classy Giant written all over him. Don’t think he would want to be a slippery snek or a paddlin padre.
Didn’t Bloomberg ban
giant colas?
Get it done Theo. You got alot of money to spend. The Cubs need a CF and a leadoff man
Giants make a lot of sense here ,