Headlines

  • Orioles Agree To 30-Year Lease At Camden Yards
  • Padres Prefer To Retain A.J. Preller, Bob Melvin In 2024
  • Brooks Robinson Passes Away
  • Reds’ Matt McLain Shut Down For Remainder Of 2023 Season
  • Padres Plan To Reduce Payroll To Around $200MM; Front Office Changes Possible
  • Marlins Place Eury Perez On 15-Day Injured List, Select Jeff Lindgren
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Rumors

MLB Trade Rumors

  • Home
  • Teams
    • AL East
      • Baltimore Orioles
      • Boston Red Sox
      • New York Yankees
      • Tampa Bay Rays
      • Toronto Blue Jays
    • AL Central
      • Chicago White Sox
      • Cleveland Guardians
      • Detroit Tigers
      • Kansas City Royals
      • Minnesota Twins
    • AL West
      • Houston Astros
      • Los Angeles Angels
      • Oakland Athletics
      • Seattle Mariners
      • Texas Rangers
    • NL East
      • Atlanta Braves
      • Miami Marlins
      • New York Mets
      • Philadelphia Phillies
      • Washington Nationals
    • NL Central
      • Chicago Cubs
      • Cincinnati Reds
      • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Pittsburgh Pirates
      • St. Louis Cardinals
    • NL West
      • Arizona Diamondbacks
      • Colorado Rockies
      • Los Angeles Dodgers
      • San Diego Padres
      • San Francisco Giants
  • About
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Tim Dierkes
    • Writing team
    • Advertise
    • Archives
  • Contact
  • Tools
    • 2023-24 MLB Free Agent List
    • 2024-25 MLB Free Agent List
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Arbitration Tracker
    • Agency Database
  • NBA/NFL/NHL
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • App
  • Chats
Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Cristian Vaquero

Quick Hits: International Signings, Astros, Watson, Nationals

By Mark Polishuk | January 7, 2022 at 1:39pm CDT

Though much of the offseason baseball calendar has been shuttered by the lockout, the next international signing period will still open as scheduled on January 15.  This will technically be the 2021-22 signing window, as both this upcoming signing period and last year’s period were pushed back from their normal July 2 date due to the pandemic.  Since many of the eligible international players long ago entered into unofficial agreements with their future teams, there isn’t much mystery about the landing spots or even the signing bonuses for these top amateur.  As such, Baseball America’s Ben Badler is able to rank the top 50 players in the market by their expected signing bonuses in his preview of the 2021-22 int’l market.

Cuban outfielder Cristian Vaquero leads the way, as the 16-year-old has already been linked to the Nationals.  The 16-year-old is a bit of a work in progress at the plate, as Badler notes that Vaquero only somewhat recently became a switch-hitter rather than a pure left-handed hitter, though he does swing well from the left side.  As for glovework, Vaquero is “a dynamic center fielder with plus speed, a strong arm and good defensive instincts for his age.”

More from around baseball…

  • “I think bringing back [Justin] Verlander is probably going to go down as the Astros’ biggest move of the offseason,” The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan writes as part of a reader mailbag.  The exception might be if a notable remaining free agent was open to the type of short-term, high-average-annual-value contract the Astros seemingly prefer, yet barring such a move, it doesn’t seem like Houston would pivot towards a longer-term deal.  To that same end, this would seemingly indicate that the Astros won’t pursue Trevor Story or a reunion with Carlos Correa, and instead head into 2022 entrusting rookie Jeremy Pena with at least a share of the regular shortstop job.  Though there’s some obvious risk involved, Kaplan notes that the Astros tried this same tactic last season when George Springer left in free agency, and the club found adequate in-house center field replacements in Myles Straw, Chas McCormick, and Jake Meyers (Houston even had enough depth at the position to deal Straw at the trade deadline).  The Astros could acquire a lower-tier veteran shortstop to provide some extra backing for Pena and utilityman Aledmys Diaz.
  • The Nationals have spent the last several months looking to overhaul their player development practices, and they went in-house to elevate De Jon Watson to the role of director of the player development department.  In a two-part interview with The Athletic’s Maria Torres (part one, part two), Watson discusses the many steps both already made and in the works, plus he also shares his thought on some of the Nats’ most interesting prospects.
Share 0 Retweet 5 Send via email0

2021-22 International Prospects Houston Astros Notes Washington Nationals Cristian Vaquero De Jon Watson Jeremy Pena

27 comments
Show all

ad: 300x250_1_MLB

    Top Stories

    Orioles Agree To 30-Year Lease At Camden Yards

    Padres Prefer To Retain A.J. Preller, Bob Melvin In 2024

    Brooks Robinson Passes Away

    Reds’ Matt McLain Shut Down For Remainder Of 2023 Season

    Padres Plan To Reduce Payroll To Around $200MM; Front Office Changes Possible

    Marlins Place Eury Perez On 15-Day Injured List, Select Jeff Lindgren

    Sandy Alcantara Shut Down For Rest Of 2023 Season

    Brandon Lowe To Miss 4-6 Weeks With Kneecap Fracture

    Rays Promote Junior Caminero

    Sean Doolittle Announces Retirement

    Tigers Name Jeff Greenberg General Manager

    Qualifying Offer Value To Land Around $20.5MM

    Shohei Ohtani Undergoes Elbow Surgery

    Marlins Claim Matt Moore From Guardians

    Rays To Announce New Stadium Deal

    Reds Designate Hunter Renfroe For Assignment

    Shohei Ohtani Out For Season With Oblique Strain

    Marcus Stroman To Pitch Out Of Bullpen

    Red Sox Fire Chaim Bloom

    Orioles Select Heston Kjerstad

    Recent

    Orioles Agree To 30-Year Lease At Camden Yards

    AL East Notes: Volpe, Martin, Siri

    Byron Buxton Discusses Postseason Availability, Knee Injury

    Pirates Shut Down Mitch Keller, Roansy Contreras For 2023

    Jeff McNeil Diagnosed With Partially Torn UCL; Surgery Not Expected

    NL West Notes: Rockies, Giants, Heyward

    NL Notes: Contreras, Pirates, Santana

    Offseason Outlook Chat Transcript: Pittsburgh Pirates

    Blue Jays’ Jay Jackson Will Be A Free Agent This Winter

    Brewers Designate Brian Anderson, Reinstate Garrett Mitchell From 60-Day Injured List

    ad: 300x250_5_side_mlb

    MLBTR Newsletter - Hot stove highlights in your inbox, five days a week

    Latest Rumors & News

    Latest Rumors & News

    • Shohei Ohtani Rumors
    Trade Rumors App for iOS and Android

    MLBTR Features

    MLBTR Features

    • Go Ad-Free
    • 2023-24 MLB Free Agent List
    • 2024-25 MLB Free Agent List
    • MLB Player Chats
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Agency Database
    • MLBTR On Twitter
    • MLBTR On Facebook
    • Team Facebook Pages
    • How To Set Up Notifications For Breaking News
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors

    Rumors By Team

    • Angels Rumors
    • Astros Rumors
    • Athletics Rumors
    • Blue Jays Rumors
    • Braves Rumors
    • Brewers Rumors
    • Cardinals Rumors
    • Cubs Rumors
    • Diamondbacks Rumors
    • Dodgers Rumors
    • Giants Rumors
    • Guardians Rumors
    • Mariners Rumors
    • Marlins Rumors
    • Mets Rumors
    • Nationals Rumors
    • Orioles Rumors
    • Padres Rumors
    • Phillies Rumors
    • Pirates Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Rays Rumors
    • Red Sox Rumors
    • Reds Rumors
    • Rockies Rumors
    • Royals Rumors
    • Tigers Rumors
    • Twins Rumors
    • White Sox Rumors
    • Yankees Rumors

    ad: 160x600_MLB

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives
    • Feeds by Team

    MLBTR INFO

    • Advertise
    • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

    hide arrowsFOX Sports Engage Network scroll to top

    Register

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version