The Guardians have acquired minor league left-hander Franklin Gomez from the Mets, according to announcements from both clubs. The Mets receive international bonus pool space in return. The pool space changing hands is $1.5MM, reports Mike Mayer of Metsmerized. Gomez does not have a 40-man roster spot, so no corresponding moves are necessary.
Today marks the start of the 2026 international signing period. Ben Badler of Baseball America is tracking all of the signings as they become known. Under this pool system, each team has a finite amount of money they can spend on international amateurs. This year’s pools are all between $5MM and $9MM. Broadly speaking, the smaller-market clubs get bigger pools and the larger-market clubs get smaller pools.
The Mets were initially allocated a pool of $5.44MM and the Guardians $8.03MM. Teams are allowed to trade pool space in $250K increments, but a team can’t increase its initial pool size by more than 60%.
Adding pool space was important for the Mets. Most teams make verbal agreements with prospects years in advance of the official signings, so they have usually agreed to allocate most of the pool space ahead of time. The Yankees had a verbal agreement in place with Wandy Asigen, an infielder from the Dominican Republic, but reports emerged in December that he was going to sign with the Mets instead. Francys Romero of BeisbolFR and Badler covered the development at the time. Asigen officially signed with the Mets today for $3.9MM.
That signing bonus would have taken up the majority of the Mets’ initial pool. That may have necessitated the Mets breaking their verbal agreements with other prospects. Mayer suggests this deal with Cleveland allowed the Mets to have enough pool space to also sign Venezuelan outfielder Cleiner Ramirez as part of this year’s class.
For the Guardians, it seems they would rather have Gomez than the pool space. The 20-year-old Venezuelan was himself an international signee a few years ago, securing a bonus of just $10K from the Mets in 2022. He has raised his stock since then. Matt Eddy of Baseball America just recently wrote about Gomez earlier this month, noting that his fastball velo ticked up in 2025, going from the 89-90 mph range in 2024 to 92-93 last year. His other pitches also made similar jumps.
He finished the year having thrown 71 2/3 innings split between Single-A and High-A, allowing 2.76 earned runs per nine. He struck out 22.1% of batters faced, gave out walks at an 11.1% clip and induced grounders on 48.4% of balls in play. BA recently listed him as the #22 prospect in the Mets’ system, noting that he has a chance to be a future starter, with a relief role as a fallback.
The Guards have undercut their ability to use this year’s pool of unsigned players but Gomez should have more ability to help them in the near term. Most international signees today are 16 years old whereas Gomez is four years older than that and has already climbed a few rungs of the minor league ladder.
Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images
Dude looks like KAMAL of the jerky boys
It’s his Nephew
Neat!
Quite a bit of IFA money. I imagine the Mets are using it on that kid they just got to switch from the Yankees, Wandy Asigen.
FG says this money is being used on another guy they had a $1.6M deal with but couldn’t afford once Asigen came into the picture
Now that they’ve updated the post with more information I can see what you mean. Either way the Yankees sacking their director of international signings paved the way for this trade. Mets keep going after yankee players. If Tucker signs elsewhere, I wonder if Stearns takes Bellinger from the Bronx next
“Mets keep going after yankee players”
This has more to do with players wanting to stay in the (probably very nice) homes they found in and around NY versus some top-down strategem the Mets concocted to poach former Yankees and pwn a fanbase
it actually going both ways as yankees have been signing former met players .. i think 3 or 4 signings in a row in a very short period of time.
“ versus some top-down strategem the Mets concocted to poach former Yankees and pwn a fanbase”
Duh. Who said anything like that?
That’s good Roll. A crosstown rivalry like that is good for baseball
I think that deal is already done? Is that how it works?
Can’t officially sign until today. Yankees reportedly had a handshake agreement with him since 2022.
shrewd move by the Mets, and I like that they were able to grab a guy that they like that the Yankees had originally expected to sign.
I had to Google it but the man’s right. Could be his son
The precursor move to a Kyle Tucker signing
Maybe 🙂 If you’re losing money in the draft and two picks, this is a way to make up for it,
Guardians made a smart move here, I think. Gomez is a young lefty with pretty good stuff. The odds are long he’ll ever be a star but it’s not hard to see him having a place in a major league bullpen in two or three years.
Nice, LGM.
Needed this for the top 25 IFA prospect they also signed today Cleiner Ramirez, I’m reading
Soooo we need offense and we trade for a pitcher… That’s… A choice
You aren’t going to get a major league bat for $1.5 million in international signing bonus space.
As much as everyone wants them to get a bat – you cannot just ignore opportunities to improve in other areas on the club or the farm system. This deal does not preclude them from adding the OF bat they desperately need. It could even end up being a precursor to a trade.
Spot on, CK. I’ve wanted the Guards to throw caution to the wind one of these years and really go for it, spend big on one amazing international athletic talent … but back in the real world where the best seem to get snapped up early and elsewhere ya gotta take what’s given and go with what you do best and that’s find pitchers. Could be giving up a year of Josh Naylor to get six of Cecconi, dumping salary to get Ortiz (oops) or something like this. I know nothing of Gomez but I trust their pitchimg process.
As for hitting fingers crossed that that special bat comes alive this year in Delauter, Bazzana, Valera, Velazquez or ??? We’re due.
We’re talking about 16 year old top Int’l Prospects. Relax Francis, this has nothing to do with the 40 Man Roster.
DURrRrRrRrRrrrr
I’ll never complain about more pool money. Question is will Dave-O push the right button.
Turning a 10k signing into 1.5 million in 3 years is a nice piece of business.
Fair enough.
Sooooo… does this mean the Mets think they’re losing some cash in next years draft? Maybe by signing someone named Tucker who has a qualifying offer?
Mets are always losing pool money by spending at the top of the market. Its a fair asssumption.
cheap stearns. what a bad choice for NY
They literally did this so they can spend more money. You clearly have no idea how the international signings work.
Guards had another year of top pool $, but again trade some away- 1.5 mil this year, 2 mil last year.
Is this further Dolan penny pinching?
Also, their top signing is around 850k-
Why not put on some big boy pants and concentrate the traded money and a couple of other signings and get into the 3 or 4 mil group?
If you look at their history of international signings, they are very poor at finding the right guys. They hit one (Jose) and maybe Rocchio will come around and they find two. That is not a good percentage since 2005. It’s better to trade this away and find talent in other organizations they know what to do with.
I think Cleveland never spends all of their allotment, so no impact on what they will do in the international market this year. Nice move.
That’s not true. They often spend more than their allotment. (They are allowed to spend a little bit over without being penalized)
The cap is a “hard cap” according to MLB.com….
“But a team can not spend more than its allotment, no matter what — there is no option to exceed the limit and pay a tax, for example. While teams are allowed to trade away as much of their pool as they so choose, they can acquire only 60 percent of their original pool.”
You might be thinking about the First-Year Player Draft (or Amateur Draft) where teams can go over and pay a penalty.
Regarding spending all of their pool money, I should have done the research before posting. This is what I found:
From 2021-2025, Cleveland spent up to their pool allotment only twice….last year when they had an adjusted pool of $4,908,600 after trading $2 mil to Toronto along with Myles Straw….and in 2023 when they spent almost all of their $5,892,500. In 2024 ($869,800), 2022 ($572,600) and 2021 ($1,484,600) they left money on the table.
Hopefully my research is correct from Spotrac.
Why do you think that? I don’t think any team leaves substantial bonus pool money on the table. They spend it or trade it.
I’m not sure about all teams, but Cleveland sometimes is well under the pool allotment. I posted this above:
From 2021-2025, Cleveland spent up to their pool allotment only twice….last year when they had an adjusted pool of $4,908,600 after trading $2 mil to Toronto along with Myles Straw….and in 2023 when they spent almost all of their $5,892,500. In 2024 ($869,800), 2022 ($572,600) and 2021 ($1,484,600) they left money on the table.
Buckeye, I’ve long been mystified why Cleveland doesn’t vie for the top prospects more often — and spend more as a result. It’s almost never. (I’ll admit I’m not very familiar with this aspect of the game.) This year with a top 8 million dollar allotment they grabbed the 38th ranked and that’s it.
They have a penchant toward mini me shortstops like Wellbyn Francisca. I think two more have been signed this period. Jose Ramirez should be a blessing on this franchise but by trying way too hard to replicate that magic they’re turning that back on its head.
Make that mini me switch hitting SS.