The Tigers announced this evening that they’ve acquired left-hander Blake Dickerson from the Padres in exchange for $500K in international bonus pool money.
Dickerson, 19, was a 12th-round pick by the Padres in the 2023 draft out of Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia. Dickerson received a bonus of $500K, equivalent to that of a fourth-round pick. The southpaw did not appear in a game for the Padres last year, meaning his Tigers debut will also be his professional debut. Baseball America recently ranked Dickerson as the #22 prospect in the San Diego farm system entering the 2024 campaign, noting that the lefty projects to have a high-velocity fastball and an above-average curveball once his 6-foot-6 frame fills out, giving him a chance to be a #4 starter or future bullpen arm depending on the development of his changeup.
For the Tigers, the addition of Dickerson adds another young arm to a system that already features a top pitching prospect in Jackson Jobe as well as lower-level arms such as Ty Madden and Troy Melton. That’s in addition to the stable of young arms contributing to the club at the big league level, led by southpaw Tarik Skubal along with the likes of Casey Mize, Matt Manning, and Alex Faedo. BA suggests that Dickerson could be a candidate to skip rookie ball and debut at the Low-A level this year.
In exchange for parting ways with Dickerson, the Padres will receive $500K in international bonus pool money, an amount identical to the bonus San Diego signed Dickerson for last summer. The Tigers opened the 2024 international signing period with a bonus pool of $6,520,000 while the Padres opened with a pool of just $4,652,000, tied with the Phillies, Rangers, and Yankees for the smallest among all thirty clubs. The trade, in effect, recoups half of the $1MM in bonus pool space the Padres forfeited by signing shortstop Xander Bogaerts last winter. The vast majority of the club’s bonus pool space for the 2024 signing period was spent on shortstop Leodalis De Vries, who the Padres signed for a $4.2MM bonus last month.
tigers182
19 y/o, 6’6” lefty? I don’t hate it for the Tigers.
Joe Robbins
Yes that a good move for sure for the Tigers. They have a shortage of LH pitching in the farm system. It’s good to see that some teams are still making moves.
LouWhitakerHOF
The Tigers never seem to sign any of the top international players so I like the move as well.
Dtownwarrior78
The Tigers rarely get involved on International FAs. Have never understood why?
detroitdave84
They are building up their international department but currently do not have enough to warrant stealing top international players from the top teams who have years of built up influence & infrastructure. Once they do, they will not trade away International $. This 6’6 LHP is a better prospect than any international player not yet committed. They had 2 million more than most teams. It’s a solid trade.
BaseballisLife
Apparently the Padres don’t think so because they used the money from this trade to complete the signing of Humberto Cruz who committed to them on January 15th
Brew88
Yep
Blackpink in the area
I don’t get it. Dickerson is a good prospect.
El Niño
Padres are signing Sasaki. Yu Darvish is his hero. AJ played the long game.
dano62
Sasaki to Seattle sounds better!
LosPobres1904
Seattle is getting Snell back home
Blackpink in the area
Playing the long game lol. Thats Preller….
CrikesAlready
The longer he is around, the more convoluted his game is.
BS Meter Detector
Roki Sasaki
Kid is 19 and already equally as good or better than Yamamoto
Chicks dig bunting
Dam tigers got some veryyyyy good pitching coming up veryyyyyy good
Gwynning
This on the heels of a very similar deal with Houston a couple days ago… AJ gearing up for another big International signing! Or two!
Simm
Yeah mlbtr missed that one. Was it ever reported how much they got back in that deal?
Gwynning
Eh, there will be some swings and misses here and there…! Still a great site. Hopefully this all adds up to Sasaki! Yu needs to actually recruit this time though haha
Simm
Did you see the dollar amount on the Houston deal?
Sustainable Plastic
I thought it was for $250,000. at least that’s what my memory is telling me
beersy
Jeff Sanders for the UT is saying the deal with Houston got them $250,000, $750,000 in total in the 2 deals.
Gwynning
beersy probably knows best, but I thought I heard 500K earlier? Either way, this $ is for ’25 Int. signing period, just fyi everybody.
Simm
Gwynning- where are you seeing it is for the 25 pool at?
Gwynning
Pretty sure that’s what Preller said. I don’t think I misheard him, but I could have.
disgruntledreader 2
It’s definitely for the current period. The CBA is clear about trading money within the current IFA period. Teams don’t even yet know their 2025 pools.
Friarguy19
I don’t think it was reported. I was curious about that as well. In addition, is this specifically 2024 pool?
Simm
Yeah I believe so, think the padres must see a chance for Yoki to post before next January 15th. They have made two trades in the last week or so just for international money. Something is up.
tigerdoc616
Something is up but probably not that. It is Dec 15 when the 2024 IFA period closes. Padres even with this trade don’t have the IFA money to make the deal. Even IF Sasaki wants to leave 2 years early (he’d be eligible after 2026 season under normal circumstances) and take a massive financial hit, it will still take most if not all a teams IFA money to make the signing. Plus, rumored he wants to pitch for the Dodgers.
Gwynning
Roki has been rocking the brown and gold all over social media. And the Pads have the IFA money, it’s just completely up to Roki. Whatever, as of now it’s all speculation anyway.
rememberthecoop
When the Dodgers signed Otani, they basically almost guaranteed themselves first crack at most of the Japanese talent coming the next 5 to 10 years at least.
dano62
More like guaranteed the league will impose harsher cap penalties and alter rules on contract backloaded deals
Gwynning
Almost coop, almost. Don’t Yu forget whom Ohtani’s idol is…
disgruntledreader 2
This has nothing to do with Roki Sasaki.
disgruntledreader 2
It is completely up to Chiba Lotte Marines, who will take a massive financial and competitive hit if they elect to post Sasaki in 2025. If, and only if, the team decides to do that, THEN it will be up to Sasaki.
WeTheOnes
Padres needed the cash more than a 6’6” 19 yr old lefty
Simm
It’s not cash, it’s the ability to spend the cash. You are limited to how much international money you can spend.
WeTheOnes
#19 Padres prospect from the most recent mlb pipeline…
tigerdoc616
Interesting deal. The IFA period in 2024 has already started and the Tigers had about $2M left to spend before this. While teams can still sign players through Dec 15th, most IFA signings usually occur in the first few days after Jan 15th. Tigers must feel they are not going to spend a lot more on IFA’s if willing to give up 500K. Padres also must think they need that 500K to sign someone(s). I don’t hate the deal from the Tigers standpoint. 19 yo pitcher probably has a better chance of panning out for the Tigers than using that money on whatever is left in this year’s IFA class.
Simm
Exactly… considering this is the second trade in a week the padres have made for just international pool money something is up. I can’t think of any high end guys currently left to be signed.
Melchez17
Number 3 prospect SS Jose Perdomo is still unsigned. Number 5 OF Adolfo Sanchez.
Simm
Think it’s got to be one of perdomo or Sanchez.
BaseballisLife
Its to complete the signing of Humberto Cruz. Padres only has $250k left after DeVries and Cruz was a $750k commitment.
tigerdoc616
That makes a lot more sense than people who are saying it is for a potential push for Sasaki.
tigerdoc616
From the Padres standpoint, they signed DeVries for $4.1M and they only had $4.6M+ to spend. So yea, they probably needed the money. Got to be someone’ on their radar they want to sign but can’t. Appears they signed a ton of guys but you can sign a ton of guys for $300K or less and not have it count against the pool.
disgruntledreader 2
The threshold for it not to count against the pool is $10,000.
detroitdave84
My exact sentiments
El Niño
100%
RonDarlingShouldntBeInTheHallOfFame
Think this goes towards next year’s pool, doesn’t it?
tigerdoc616
Nope. Reported that it is for this years (2024) pool.
tigerdoc616
I see some comments about Sasaki, Roki Sasaki I believe. Rumored to have an opt out to allow him to be posted any time he wants. But if he does before he meets normal posting requirements then he stands to lose a lot of money. He would have to be signed as an IFA and the Padres even with this trade don’t have near the money in their pool given they spent most of it already on DeVries. Sasaki would be a fool to leave Japan early. He will still be paid well in Japan and if he continues to dominate like he has he’ll command a figure probably close to or even more than Yamamoto got signing with the Dodgers this year. Bottom line is he isn’t coming to the US anytime soon.
Simm
Yeah I totally agree. Ohtani didn’t but different rules back then.
DarkSide830
So they recycled the signing bonus into slot money. Hmm. And is it for this signing period or the next?
Simm
This one
2006_wbc-dice-k
Feel like Reese Olson deserves a mention among young DET starters…
DongKelly
Moreso than Faedo
84LeFlore
I like both Olson and Faedo. In fact, I’m as happy with the Tigers pitching depth as I have been in a very long time. There is some talent accumulating. Then there’s Jobe, who looks like an absolute stud.
BaseballisLife
This gives the Padres money to complete the signing of Humberto Cruz.
Simm
I thought that was done, was it not?
BaseballisLife
Cruz was a $750k commitment. They didn’t have that left after signing DeVries.
Simm
Gwynning – is saying this was for next year.
I haven’t seen anything either way on when it’s for reported.
Gwynning
Hey, I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure this one and Houston were for ’25. Apologies ahead of time if I’m wrong!
Simm
No worries, it’s not really been reported from places I look. Though I could have missed the union tribune report on it.
Time will tell
Simm
Jeff Saunders is saying both are for this years pool.
Here is who he said are the top remaining guys.
For instance, Venezuelan shortstop Kennew Blanco (9), Dominican shortstop Raymel Ortiz (26), Dominican outfielder Jeremy Denaud (40) and Dominican outfielder Anderson Paula (49) are the remaining unsigned prospects from MLB.com’s top-50 rankings.
Doesn’t mention anything about Cruz.
Gwynning
Carillo to Houston is logged as “future considerations”… maybe I’m conflating the two transactions as BOTH ’25. Eh, we’ll see like u said. Laterrrs skaterrrs
BaseballisLife
Im going off what they said on MLB NETWORK
Javia135
detroitnews.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2024/02/17….
Detroit News says that this money is from the current signing period.
Javia135
sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2024-…
beersy
The Padres must like what they see in Cruz more than Dickerson. Of course, making a handshake deal years ago with an international kid, only to not have the money to pay him years later isn’t a good look for a team that is very involved in the International side of things.
Has anyone been able to find anything on next year’s International top prospects yet? I know not all the top players from this year’s class aren’t signed yet, but it’s always fun to look ahead. It will be interesting to see which teams have been linked to players and which teams haven’t, then see who would have the most money to try and pry Sasaki from Japan early.
Simm
I’m sure they had a deal and they told him they would find the money for him. Padres have been doing great in the international market. I doubt this has any effect especially since he is still getting his money.
beersy
That’s what I was getting at, if they couldn’t “find” the money, that could have negatively affected future deals/signings.
disgruntledreader 2
Gwynning is wrong.
Gwynning
Yes I was, congrats!
Motor City Beach Bum
Looks like an interesting arm to add to their stable. You can never have too many lefties. The Tigers are doing a good job of adding depth for the future.
stymeedone
That’s because its Harris’ main focus. He doesn’t want Avila’s team to be the success. He wants his own team. He and Chris won’t open the check book until Clark arrives.
Motor City Beach Bum
So its a bad thing to rebuild the minor league system now? Which by the way was not in good order after Tork and Greene graduated. I don’t see building a sustainable winner as a negative. Clark will rise quickly through the minors and there should be a good young team around him for years to come (like Houston has done).
The only position not filled right now by a long term starter is 3B and there is a plan for that. Matt Chapman would have been a mistake unless it was on a one year contract and it seems like they want to try Jung out later in the year. Canha was brought in as a one year placeholder to help with the issue of OBP and they signed two starters and a bunch of pen arms too.
It doesn’t matter what Harris and Greenberg do, you don’t like it. Have you hated the moves they’ve made since the GM Greenberg got there? Even a positive like bringing in an interesting young LH pitcher for cash is a negative for you because they are focusing on building their minor league system to have a sustainable winner? Give your head a shake dude.
tigerfan4ever
Not really a good idea to try to make sense out of STYMEEDONE’s logic. He hates Harris because he didn’t make the Tigers a World Series contender after a week on the job and every move in his mind is a step backwards. He’s trying and succeeding in making a total a** out of himself so my advice is every time he makes a comment on this board, never ever try to make sense out of the senseless! In other words like the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz said to Dorothy, the Cowardly Lions, the Scarecrow and the tin man said when Toto pulled back the curtain, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” STYMEEDONE is just a bad immature childish classless figment of STYMEEDONE’s deranged imagination.
tigerfan4ever
*Cowardly Lion not Lions, unless you’re drinking during the movie. lol
84LeFlore
Doesn’t want Avila’s team “to be the success?” Huh? What about all the Avila players Harris has kept on the roster? Doesn’t he get credit for that? What about the Harris players Harris just released?
Avila did a good job accumulating talent, but his regime had become lagging way behind other orgs. They were woefully lacking in analytics and developing talent.
Whatever Harris did to shake up the organization worked. Player development made a noticeable improvement. He hasn’t even been in the job a year and a half and he’s a failure?
For Love of the Game
$500k in unused IFA money sounds cheap for this guy’s toolset. Probably will turn out to be nothing, but Chris Fetter probably saw something he liked (a pitcher as tall as he is!).
warnbeeb
Tigers got a 4th round teenage, lefty for $500k.
They have only 2 picks in the 1st 50 of this year’s draft. They got a head start on juicing their farm system.
Scott Harris is way better at this GM thingy than the previous guy.
BaseballisLife
Dickerson was a 12th round pick.
warnbeeb
Signed above slot. $500k was 4th round money. Which = 4th round talent.
warnbeeb
He was on most draft boards at around the #120 mark. 4th-5th rounder.
GarryHarris
The front office is significantly larger too.
warnbeeb
Interestingly, Dickerson pitched for the U.S. Under 18 team last year that also included 2023, Tiger draft picks Max Clark and Kevin McGonigal.
I would think the Tigers noticed him while scouting their 2 high draft picks.
A clip of him suggests he’s a pretty skinny 6’6′ kid. Throws in the low 90’s now, but I bet when he fills out he can pump those numbers up….until his UCL breaks. Kidding…just kidding.
Brew’88
Dickerson has serious upside though, and likely why Pads were smart to find an American L team to work a trade for Int. pool money. There’s a lot of potential and provocative reasons why they did this, but most are related to playing a long game which I like to see with the Pads right now. And besides, Dickerson wasn’t likely to push ahead of the likes of Snelling, Iriarte, Thorpe, Lesko, Mazur, etc…
For Love of the Game
When, not if, his UCL tears. But it only becomes consequential to the Tigers if this $500k in bonus money turns out to be a bargain.
El Niño
Is there anything stopping teams from trading prospects for entire pools of international money? This seems like a strange loophole that could end up fueling an arms race of pool money for sasaki.
jgaepi
It’s a loophole. But not strange at all. Strategic.
BaseballisLife
They can double their pool in trades.
Simm
Sasaki may not even post. Plus it’s not that easy to acquire this money. Padres had to trade a decent prospect to get back 500k.
Most of these international guys have agreed to terms with teams years before they are even eligible.
There may be a special case here and there like Sasaki. Though players like Sasaki are just better waiting until they are 25 and coming over as a true free agent.
El Niño
All fair points. But let’s posit that there’s only a handful of teams that have a shot at landing a generational talent like sasaki – it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that the padres would trade a Jackson Merrill (just using that as an example) for another teams entire pool if they knew they had a really good shot at landing him.
Motor City Beach Bum
Done. Call the Tigers back and make that deal! There’s Baez’s replacement. Well worth it!
Javia135
A prospect with little over $50 million in surplus value in return for a little over $5 million to spend? Thank god that you aren’t Preller.
El Niño
Jesus. Relax. In this hypothetical we were using the money to sign sasaki. Again though I was just using the hypothetical to talk about how teams might go about acquiring international pool money.
BaseballisLife
Since Sasaki would be taking a huge discount coming to MLB before he turns 25, don’t you think that like Ohtani it will be be more about where Sasaki wants to play than the money since it won’t be much difference between the teams.
El Niño
Probably. He’ll probably be making more from endorsements anyways.
disgruntledreader 2
Any team can acquire up to 60% of their total pool amount in a given year. So, once the 2025 pool amounts are known in April/May (they’re adjusted down for teams that sign QO free agents and that space is redistributed to the remaining teams) everyone will know their starting points for the 2025 IFA period. Then they’ll know in late December if Chiba Lotte gives in to Sasaki’s reported interest and will go from there.
mrpadre19
This is 2024 bonus money….i don’t see how it can be used for Sasaki in 2025.
disgruntledreader 2
It can’t.
FanDan
Guy went from 19th ranking in San Diego system per MLB Pipeline to 27th in Detroit’s. I guess we know who has a deeper farm system. Good job Tigers.
CNichols
MLB pipeline also has Padres at 9th best system and Tigers at 13th so they must think SD is a bit top heavy. ESPN just had Tigers at 3rd and Padres at 4th overall. Seem like pretty comparable systems.
FanDan
Yeah. I think SD is very top heavy in their top five which carries the rating for the whole system. It drops off faster then and craters when you get to 15. Detroit it appears has more depth in their system.
Deleted Userr
Well now we know why this trade was made.
twitter.com/BenBadler/status/1760405917995024682?t…