Pirates Prospects has learned that the Pittsburgh Pirates signed two pitchers from Venezuela this afternoon. They are 17-year-old left-hander Luis Diaz and 16-year-old righty Kleiner Machado. Diaz got a $50,000 bonus, while Machado received $90,000.
Diaz got the smaller bonus, but he is currently the better player. He has a clean delivery and can hit 92 MPH with little effort. He also has a good frame. He was eligible to sign last year, but experienced tremendous growth over the past year. At this time last year, he was throwing high-70’s, but he jumped up to high-80’s, which got the Pirates’ attention and he now sits 89-92 MPH.
We also learned about the signings of three pitchers from the Dominican Republic, though two of them were actually signed right before the last signing period ended on June 15th. Leandro Pina is 16 years old and he’s the July 2nd signing, who got a $115,000 bonus. Wilmer Contreras and Randy Jimenez got $85,000 and $100,000 respectively. Jimenez is a lefty with a clean delivery, while the other two are RHP.
You can view the international tracker here, which now has seven players the Pirates have signed since the July 2nd period has started.
