Ben Badler from Baseball America announced that the Pittsburgh Pirates signed three players from Colombia yesterday. We will try to get more information on the players soon, but for now, here are the names.
Santiago Florez is a right-handed pitcher who signed for $150,000.
Infielder Francisco Acuna signed for $70,000.
Right-handed pitcher Luis Arrieta signed for $130,000
UPDATE: Jesse Sanchez from MLB.com also announced these signings a short time after Badler and has a $70,000 bonus for Acuna (Badler spelled his last name Actuna, but I have information matching up to the spelling by Sanchez). He has Arrieta signing for $130,000. I think the bonus totals are probably correct, just not sure who got which one. Either way I’d say the Pirates spent $350,000 total of their $2,044,800 bonus pool on these three players.
While I can’t find any scouting reports on Acuna, except one from when he was 12, I will say that he has quite an international track record over the last four years. He has only been listed as a shortstop from all the information I’ve seen so far and he played on a team called the Pirates late last year with Yair Babilonia, who was signed last season and is currently serving as the third-string catcher for the DSL Pirates. Santiago Florez was also on that same team.
Check back soon for any details on these players and possibly more signings. We have added our international signing tracker, which you can find here.
