For those of you who can’t muster enthusiasm over the amateur drafts, the July 2nd international signing period is probably even worse. Scouting 16 year old kids is little better than throwing darts. The A’s have a track record of being active in international signings. Some successful (Tejada) and some disappointing (Ynoa, Prieto). But in recent years the A’s haven’t been big players. Last year the A’s were 28 of 30 in international spending. And the reports going into this year were more of the same. And then nearing the 2nd reporters started to surface that the A’s might not just be players, but even go over their international bonus pool.
And it’s happened. The A’s have already signed 5 players for $6.7 million.
Lazaro Armenteros, of, Cuba, for $3 million.
Marcos Brito, ss, Dominican Republic at $1.1 million.
Yerdel Vargas, ss, Dominican Republic, $1.5 million.
Kevin Richards, of, Dominican Republic, $600,000.
George Bell, ss, Dominican Republic, $500,000.
There are a few things about this that are interesting to me. While it seems crazy to spend that kind of money on teenagers, it’s probably smart. The draft and international signings are places where teams can acquire talent relatively cheaply. But the A’s spent enough this year that they won’t be allowed to spend more than $300,000 on any given player in the next two international periods. Which begs two questions, why haven’t the A’s been more active in recent years, and more important, why are they suddenly being so active this year?
As for the former question, I’m not sure, maybe it was as a result of getting burned on Ynoa, maybe it was based in a belief that international players have been overpriced, maybe it’s been a choice between payroll and bonuses. I’m not really sure.
As for the A’s decision to break the mold and splurge this year, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the A’s think that the a new CBA, coming in 2017, will likely totally re-write the international signing process. It’s an interesting strategy on the A’s part. I like it.
ynoa is a major leaguer
Ynoa’t with the A’s?
10 Ks in 7.1 innings pitched! But also 5 BB, 1 HBP, 1 wild pitch.
Once In A Generation Talent!
They just need talent straight up. The position player prospects have been pretty terrible this year across AA and AAA with the exception of Ryon Healy. The pitching that’s close/graduated range from decent (Mengden) to shaky (Manaea) to bad (Overton). More importantly, it’s not enough as there’s not much left after those 3. They really need two of Puk, Jefferies, and Shore to work out.
I don’t know if the hauls from Hill, Reddick, Gray possibly, etc could change any of this but right now the state of the organization top to bottom is simply bad. With all the overhauling that’s happened over the last two years, this is disappointing to say the least, and they’re running out of major league chips that’s valuable enough to cash in for something good in turn.
I wonder how much can be attributed to Forst taking the reigns, or how much Billy still has control, or what
Thanks, and go As.
I want to believe your theory, that the A’s are striking now to game a system they think will change soon. So I will.
I read somewhere that, in addition to the limits for the next 2 years, there’s also a 100% “penalty” for going over the intl signing cap. Is that 100% of the total spent, e.g. another $6.7M? And where does that money go? Because that’s a lot!
I think it’s 100% of the amount over the cap. Oakland’s bonus pool was $3.8M.
I think it’s 100% of the excess over the spending limit, so more like $3-4M. Still not chump change. We should go revisit grover’s post and see how this squares up.
These guys are both correct. As of right now the A’s pay $9.8 for the signings. The penalty money goes to MLB, I’m not totally sure but I believe it goes into the luxury tax pool.
It does. And teams that tip into the Luxury Tax jar do not receive a check at the emd of the season from the jar.
Part of the reason Oakland was more active was the June trade of Coghlan. Oakland had been connected to Brito, Vargas and Richards for a couple months now and whom combined (with Bell) to eat up most of the A’s allotted international monies,
Dealing Coghlan when they did saved the A’s just over $3 million from his salary… almost the exact amount they spent to sign Lazarito. They will still owe for going over slot but don’t be surprised if they pick up some slot allotments before the trade deadline. Even if that doesn’t happen Oakland figures to free up sufficient payroll to cover their taxes when they deal Hill and Co. in the coming weeks.
how much do they get back from luxury taxes?
It varies yearly, depending on how much goes into the jar and by how many teams. MLB gets its cut before distributing the cash.