Today, MLB organizations may make officially official the deals they’ve wink-wink had in place, in some cases, for years. International amateurs are eligible to sign for a chunk of each club’s allotted bonus pool, officially becoming professional baseball players. Although this period runs through December 15, most of the top prospects will sign today. Moreover, the Chicago Cubs’ bonus pool ($6,261,600) – assuming they don’t trade for more – is expected to mostly be used up by the close of business. So it’s a big day no matter what.
Today may have some extra drama, what with the Roki Sasaki pursuit. That starts with the three finalists for Sasaki – Dodgers, Padres, and Blue Jays – who probably aren’t going to be able to finalize any of their big money deals. They may be looking to trade for additional IFA pool space – today’s the first day you can do that – and may let their committed prospects walk. That will tentacle out into other organizations, either because they are trading pool space or trying to poach prospects. Will that further bump other prospects or IFA pool funds around? Will the Cubs be able to pick up an extra high-quality prospect or two? We shall see.
I’ll track the Cubs’ reported signings, as well as any other major news, below as the day goes on …
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Baseball America will be one of the best sources for signing information today, and they list the Cubs’ expected class (of above-$10,000 signings – the ones that count against the pool) so far as:
Wilfry De La Cruz, SS, Dominican Republic
Juan Cabada, SS, Dominican Republic
Juan Tomas, SS, Dominican Republic
Tadeo Gamez, RHP, Mexico
Elerick Gomez, SS, Venezuela
Julio Acosta, OF, Dominican Republic
Luis Santos, SS, Dominican Republic
More details, bonus information, and scouting reports coming soon.
UPDATE: A full write-up at Baseball America on the Cubs’ expected class, with particular praise for Juan Tomas, whom you might recall was a late-in-class pick-up after the Marlins let him out of his commitment:
“Arguably the most exciting upside in the Cubs’ class belongs to Juan Tomas. He’s athletic, 6-foot-3, 175 pounds and might not be done growing into a highly projectable build and tool set that should allow his tools to continue trending up. He’s a plus runner with the look of a player who might still get faster as he fills out. There’s potential for a power/speed threat with Tomas’ ability to drive the ball with impact now and much bigger power to come with physical maturity. For a young, long-limbed hitter, Tomas has done a good job of keeping his swing under control from both sides of the plate to help him perform well against live pitching.”
There is also a bit on Mexican righty Tadeo Gamez, which is nice to see, as pitching prospects tend to get less attention in IFA because of their much lower confidence level in projecting such young players (and Mexico is also sometimes underscouted in IFA): “Mexican righthander Tadeo Gomez is an arm to watch in the class. At 5-foot-10, he’s not that tall, but he has stood out for his pitchability. He has a fast arm and a fastball that has been up to 94 mph.”
See the BA write-up for more on the class.
UPDATE 2: Though he doesn’t yet show up on BA’s list, don’t forget about Cuban prospect Jaims Martinez, whom we discussed earlier in the week. Could wind up another prominent name in the class.
UPDATE 3: How about some rankings info? BA doesn’t rank international prospects except for the order of their bonus size, which doesn’t necessarily tell you as much as another list that is attempting to rank the prospects purely on scouting (which, by the way, is also EXTREMELY difficult at these ages).
At MLB Pipeline, the Cubs’ soon-to-be prospects are ranked 10th (Juan Cabada) and 13th (Wilfry De La Cruz) in the class, with the others falling outside the top-50.
At FanGraphs, the Cubs have number 14 (Juan Tomas), number 18 (Cabada), and 40 (De La Cruz).
In other words, De La Cruz is getting the largest bonus, Cabada is the highest-ranked at Pipeline, and Tomas is the highest-ranked at FanGraphs. That’s kinda how IFA goes, to be honest, and it’s usually just a good sign to have a trio of prospects included in these conversations, given that there are 30 orgs. You have to hope one of your big names is a hit, and then a couple of the less-known guys break out. That, of course, can take many years for us to really know how a class is shaping up (for example, the 2024 class had some really nice performances in the DSL, but the biggest names didn’t necessarily have huge seasons).
UPDATE 4: Other reasons, you say:
The Cubs are one of those teams that have no pictures yet, so possibly no official signings yet. That is absolutely atypical, and could very well be one of those “other reasons” situations. If it is, my guess would be that the Cubs need to acquire a little more pool space to finalize their class or they are trying to poach and coordinate moves to make sure they don’t go over (or, in a very, very, very unlikely case, they are among the teams considering trading AWAY pool space to the eventual Sasaki winner).