More good news from the international amateur front: today, Jesse Sanchez reports that the Cubs have signed 18-year-old pitching prospect Jen-Ho Tseng for $1.625 million. The Taiwanese righty has a great deal of experience already (he was on Chinese Taipei’s WBC roster this year), and will be eligible to start pitching in Arizona immediately, if the Cubs want him to.
The Cubs have been connected to Tseng for a while now, in their quest to go nuts internationally this year. Tseng has been written up here twice before (here and here), and those are worth checking out for more background on the prospect.
The Cubs are also expected to officially ink top Dominican prospect Eloy Jimenez next week.
Once all deals are final and in place, we’ll dig into the financial implications – which are explored in those two earlier Tseng articles. The short version? If all deals are correctly reported, the Cubs will slide into the maximum penalty range for their international signings, at which point it might make sense to go after a couple more top prospects.