41.5 F
Pittsburgh

A Review of the 2018-19 International Signing Period for the Pirates

Published:

The 2018-19 international signing period wrapped up on June 15th for all 30 teams. Major League Baseball has a 16-day period where there are no international signings. When the 2019-20 international signing period begins on July 2nd, the Pittsburgh Pirates will have $6,481,200 in their bonus pool. They are considered the favorite to sign right-handed pitcher Cristopher Cruz, who could be the biggest bonus player this upcoming signing period. The Pirates have maxed out their bonus pool every year since the system was put in place in 2012, so expect them to do that again this year. Today we look at the full review of their 2018-19 signing class.

The Pirates signed a total of 43 players from July 2, 2018 until June 15, 2019, with the final three players being added on June 13th, which likely maxed out their pool. We knew at one point that they were down to $613,500 left in their bonus pool, but the Pirates signed 13 players since then. For those who don’t know, it’s not actual money in the pool, it’s the ability to spend that money. If you don’t spend it during that one year, it’s gone.

Most of the international bonus pool was spent on day one, with some of it being set aside for two players they agreed to deals with ahead of time, but couldn’t officially sign them until they turned 16.

If you’ve been following our Prospect Watch, you have seen the bonus figures given in the DSL recaps, and you know that many of those players are off to great starts.

The top bonus was handed out on day one to outfielder Osvaldo Gavilan, who received $700,000 to sign. The Pirates also spent $500,000 on both outfielder Sergio Campana and shortstop Luis Tejeda (one source says Tejeda received $475,000, but it was announced at $500,000, so we go with that one). Tejeda had to wait until August 26th to sign. In fact, if he was born six days later, he would probably be a top target during the 2019-20 signing period because he has made some nice progress since signing. While he didn’t receive as much as Gavilan, Campana was considered to be the top prospect signed by the Pirates.

The Pirates also spent $400,000 on shortstop Dariel Lopez, $380,000 on shortstop Juan Jerez, $355,000 on left-handed pitcher Adrian Mendez, and $350,000 each on third baseman Alexander Mojica and infielder Orlando Chivilli. Their top eight signings represented the first time that the Pirates spent $350,000+ on that many players in one year, and those players also took up about 60% of the total bonus pool.

That wasn’t all for day one though. I’m including Tejeda and Mojica (August 4th signing) because they were known deals agreed to ahead of time. Another ten players also signed that day and five received six-figure bonuses. A little later in July, two more players combined to receive $430,000 in bonuses. You can find the entire list of six-figure bonuses, which were provided by Jesse Sanchez from MLB.com and Ben Badler from Baseball America, in our international signing tracker.

By the time September rolled around, the Pirates likely had less than $1,000,000 left in their bonus pool. That gives you about 9 1/2 months to find some hidden gems and spread around the rest of the money. A lot of that time is spent scouting for the next signing period, but you find some late bloomers. You can see some of the early success for the Pirates in that area in Luis Ortiz and Adrian Florencio, who are both in the rotation at Bristol this year, skipping right over the bottom two levels of pro ball. Ortiz signed for $25,000 in October and Florencio signed in February.

We also saw Jauri Custodio signed as the same time as Florencio. Custodio was originally signed by the Colorado Rockies for $150,000 but they voided his deal due to an injury. He signed seven months later with the Pirates and has an .885 OPS so far this season.

The final three players signed on June 13th included two right-handed pitchers from the Dominican and 17-year-old catcher Fabian Urbina from Mexico. The young switch-hitter has been scouted by the Pirates for quite some time, but he was a middle infielder when they started following him and now his strong arm has him behind the plate, where he apparently looks much better. One of the pitchers is named Jarlin Yes, so you really don’t need to know anything more about him to like him.

A breakdown of the players signed shows the following:

By Position

RHP: 18

OF: 8

SS/2B: 8

Catcher: 5

LHP: 2

3B: 2

1B: 0

Not one middle infielder was signed after the first day, other then Tejeda waiting until his birthday to officially sign. Not one catcher was signed before October.

By Country

Dominican Republic: 29

Venezuela: 9

Mexico: 2

Panama: 2

Nicaragua: 1

The Pirates signed seven players out of Colombia during the two previous signing periods combined and didn’t get one player from there during the 2018-19 period. The number from Mexico is low because signings out of there were put on hold for most of the 2018-19 signing period while MLB and Mexican baseball worked out a better system for the players.

By Age (age when they signed)

16 years old: 21

17: 12

18: 3

19: 5

20: 2

You obviously want to see as many 16/17-year-old players and 33 out of 43 is pretty good in that area. The older players here were all signed later, starting with Johan Montero on August 13th. The two oldest players are pitchers and both were late bloomers. Enmanuel Mejia throws 93-95 MPH now, and the aforementioned Adrian Florencio has added even more velocity since signing in late February. He has a 6’6″ frame that is still filling out.

By Six-Figure Bonuses

OF: 5

2B/SS: 5

RHP: 3

LHP: 1

3B: 1

C/1B: 0

The Pirates really stocked up in the outfield with Gavilan being their biggest signing and Campana tying for the second most. They also added three other players (Jose Berroa, Rodolfo Nolasco and Franreilis Bastardo) who received a combined $715,000, making it $1,915,000 spent on those five alone. That doesn’t include Jauri Custodio, who may have received a low six-figure bonus comparable to the $150,000 he was going to receive from the Rockies. It also doesn’t include Luis Tello, a top prospect in Panama, and Carlos Canache, a top outfield prospect in Venezuela, who skipped right to the U.S. It’s safe to say more than 1/3rd of their bonus pool was spent in the outfield.

 

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

Related Articles

Article Drop

Latest Articles