Chicago Cubs Were Near the Top in International Spending in 2015

As you already knew, the Chicago Cubs were among the big international spenders in 2015, as they blew out their IFA budget right at the start of the last period, which opened on July 2, 2015.

At Baseball America, Ben Badler has catalogued all team international spending in the 2015 calendar year, and it makes for an interesting read here.

The Cubs come in at number three in baseball, having spent $18.53 million on signing bonuses for international prospects in 2015. They are a distant third behind the insanely-lavishly-spending Dodgers and the Red Sox (Yoan Moncada, alone, cost over $30 million, you’ll recall), but only one other team is even over $10 million (the Diamondbacks, who gave more than $8 million to Cuban pitcher Yoan Lopez). So, the Cubs are kind of in a tier by themselves, having spent quite a bit on a large number of players in 2015, almost entirely within the current IFA period.

When that period closes up on June 15 of this year, the Cubs will enter into a maximum penalty, which will prohibit them from spending more than $300,000 on any one prospect for the next two periods. That is to say: if the Cubs were going to blow their budget in this period, it’s good that they spend a whole lot. But also: here’s hoping they can land some of the Cuban prospects still available before this period closes.

Interestingly on that front, if you exclude Cuban prospects from the international signings, the Cubs’ spending in 2015 blows every other team away. Clearly, they were aggressive and early in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, in particular. Because Cuban players come available in a much more unpredictable way, the Dodgers have been able to outspend everyone else on the top players from that group. Here’s hoping that doesn’t continue for the next few months.