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International Signing Day Is Here

Posted on July 2nd, 2009 8:49am by Mike Hindman
Filed under Baseball, Free agents, Mighty MJH, Talkin' baseball, Texas Rangers

The Rangers have vigorously bolstered their farm system through international free agancy, landing talents such as Martin Perez, Wilfredo Boscan, Wilmer Front, Omar Poveda, Jose Vallejo, Manny Pina, Carlos Pimentel and many others from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic over the past several years. While they were rumored to have been frontrunners to land last year’s big fish Michael Ynoa (who signed with Oakland for $4 million), Texas still hasn’t ever signed an international free agent for seven figures.

That was supposed to change this year as the Rangers were widely believed to have agreed to a deal with power-hitting outfield prospect Guillermo Pimentel for $2 million. But in recent weeks, reports have Pimentel signing with the Mariners for that figure instead.

This year — assuming the Rangers have the cash to sign anybody, and it’s entirely possible that they don’t — it appears that this guy is going to be their top international signee.

Venezeulan legend Jurickson Profar led his country to the Little League World Series title at the age of 11 back in 2004. Five years down the road, he’s expected to sign with Texas for about $800K. Profar has tantilizing stuff on the mound, but he reportedly prefers to play shortstop.

Other high profile Caribbean prospects linked to the Rangers of late include 6’6″ RHP Leonardo Perdomo –expected to sign for a high six figure bonus — and possibly SS Luis Sardinas, who may command a seven-figure bonus.

14 Comments to “International Signing Day Is Here”

gordosan @ July 2nd, 2009 at 9:05 am

The top two picks in the draft will require $6-8 million to sign based on their asking prices. Pimentel’s money was probably diverted in that direction.
Sherman @ July 2nd, 2009 at 10:38 am

Profar is from Curacao not Venezuela
John @ July 2nd, 2009 at 10:43 am

@ gordosan — management has said before that the latin american scouting/signing money is different/seperate from the draft money — so thats not an issue
Rossometown @ July 2nd, 2009 at 10:47 am

I am extremely disappointed in the Pimental development. I was really excited about getting him in the organization, and to potentially lose him within the organization is a tough blow. Is it offical yet?

I feel like it’s Christmas and we got stuck with gruel and a top…
Eric @ July 2nd, 2009 at 11:17 am

Luis Sardinas is rated as the number 6 prospect in Latin America, so assuming we do sign him….he would be the highest rated one we sign. Profar is 15 and Perdomo is 20. Quite a haul if you ask me, and Pimentel was only 4. Sardinas is right there with him, and Luis is one of the few SS’s who will actually stay at the position as he moves through the system.
ivysafety39 @ July 2nd, 2009 at 11:27 am

considering our lack of MIF prospects, i’m ok with signing two SS’s in this class.

and john is correct. budget is laid out early for signing LA players and it is separated from the budget for signing our draftees. shouldn’t be a problem.
Brett in SD @ July 2nd, 2009 at 2:00 pm

Just because a budget is allocated doesn’t mean it’s funded. I can say I’m going to allocate $10,000 to my “restaurant/bar” budget for the upcoming year, but if I’m not able to make mortgage payments, then my $10,000 restaurant budget goes down…very quickly. If the rumor about the Rangers having to dip into the MLB fund are true, I suspect they are going to have trouble paying “above slot” to their draft picks and probably won’t be big players in the international free agent market.
Sean @ July 2nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm

Do you know if we are going to be a player for Aroldis Chapman, who just defected from Cuba? Mlb.com just ran a story on him that he defected and is ready to sign with MLB team. The video of him from BBC is exciting. Kid is just 21 and already throws 100 mph as a lefty and looks very projectable like he may even throw harder.
gordosan @ July 2nd, 2009 at 3:23 pm

John: Do you think it is just coincidence that we were considered to be a lock to sign Pimental until just after the draft, when suddenly he was apparently headed elsewhere for what we had previously offered. Maybe there is no relationship , but I doubt it.
Tim Perkins @ July 2nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm

That ballfield looks like a suburb of Newark.
The Dirkatron @ July 2nd, 2009 at 4:45 pm

For those of you wondering if a team strapped for cash can still sign kids in LA like they want to, witness the cash-strapped Cardinals, unable to add payroll at the major league level, signing Wagner Mateo to a team record 3.1mm bonus today.
Bobby in Bryan @ July 2nd, 2009 at 4:49 pm

Somebody explain to me the ramifications of signing 16 year old foreign players to professional contracts. For instance, is the contract oonditional upon the player graduating high school? Do the paychecks begin before that? We would not find signing 16 year old American players acceptable, would we? Why is it not questioned when we do it for foreign youngsters?
Sean @ July 2nd, 2009 at 7:19 pm

How about one the Rangers Dominican teams threw a nohitter yesterday on top of The Bakersfield game. Polonco went 7 nohit and two relievers finished the nono out. Good to see Alexi Ogando have a scoreless outing and show back in the boxscore again.
Roy. P @ December 24th, 2009 at 6:19 pm

Thank you allot for this useful post!
i found a youtube video about watching tv online that I would like to share: international Tv Online.
But seriously, amazing post and thanks allot !!
i look ahead to your next article !!

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