Hoping for minimal chaos with Sasaki signing, plus O's international notes

Here is one man’s hope that the projected chaos with pitcher Roki Sasaki signing with a big league club as soon as this week could be minimal. 

Because he has to be signed as an international amateur, he can sign officially with any of the 30 clubs starting on Wednesday. But he won’t be getting the big free agent money like Corbin Burnes or Max Fried got as he signs as an international amateur. The new signing period begins this Wednesday.

Each team gets a limited pool amount to sign these players and it’s essentially a hard salary cap. A team could trade for up to 60 percent of its original pool. The teams with the largest pools, as of this Wednesday at $7.555 million are Cincinnati, Detroit, Miami, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Oakland, Seattle and Tampa Bay.

There are six teams in the next tier with $6.9 million available in their pools and that group includes the Orioles along with Arizona, Cleveland, Colorado, Kansas City and Pittsburgh.

The Orioles have not been linked by any report I have seen in any way to Sasaki. And to likely confirm that he is not signing with the Orioles, or one of 26 other teams, ESPN last night reported that he has a final group of three teams - the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays.

As of Monday afternoon, previous reports were coming out that Sasaki will not be signing with the Yankees, Mets or Giants. There was also a report that Sasaki did recently meet with the Padres and Toronto Blue Jays while others still considered the Dodgers to be heavily in the mix and the likely favorite to get him.

Where the chaos was coming in play here is that teams that seriously could add Sasaki, it is assumed, previously and maybe for years, have had verbal agreements in place to sign international players later this week. They may have million or multi-million dollar agreements in place. Does the team that gets Sasaki have to then renege on those previous deals to give all their bonus money to the pitcher? Some assume this could be also true. Chaos indeed.

And there could still be plenty of chaos if he is truly open to all three teams reported by ESPN. What if those teams make sure they could offer him almost their full allotment from their bonus pools only to not be picked as his signing team?

Baseball America already reported that shortstop Darrel Morel from the Dominican Republic, who was one of the Dodgers top signings for this class, will now go to the Pirates. Per BA, he is expected to get about $1.8 million from Pittsburgh, which is about double what he would have gotten from the Dodgers.

Does this mean he was encouraged by the Dodgers to look elsewhere, freeing up money for Sasaki or did the player and agent take it on their own to move on from their previous agreement? Maybe his switch to Pittsburgh is not related to Sasaki in any way. All could be possible. 

Here is hoping Sasaki makes a quick decision and that teams and players that have had international amateur agreements in place for months, or possibly years, won’t have to abandon those arrangements.

The Orioles are expected to have a new international class of signings to tell us about on Wednesday.  

In this article from Baseball America (subscription may be required), international expert Ben Badler lists players by projected signing bonus amounts. He lists 100 international players and reports the O’s are expected to have agreements with Jose Pena, ranked No. 44, a shortstop from the Dominican Republic. Also, with lefty-hitting outfielder Johancel Gomez, ranked No. 65, from the Dominican and with Cuban-born shortstop Meykel Baró, rated No. 85.

Badler notes that players on his list from No. 30-46 project to get a bonus of $1 million or more. Players from No. 62-80 project at $600,000 plus and those rated No. 81-92 are projected for bonuses of $500,000 plus.

Sports reporter Francys Romero had earlier reported the O’s will add four Cuban players, including Baró. He also had the team adding shortstop Ronald Terrero, outfielder Yeison Acosta and lefty pitcher Yunior Villavicencio.

Under the O’s Mike Elias and vice president, international scouting and operations Koby Perez, the club has signed five players to bonuses of $1 million or more.

$2.3 million - shortstop Luis Almeyda, signed Jan. 15, 2023.

$1.7 million - outfielder Braylin Tavera, signed Jan. 15, 2022.

$1.3 million - catcher Samuel Basallo signed on Jan. 15, 2021 and shortstop Emilio Sanchez, signed on Jan. 15, 2024.

$1.2 million - shortstop Maikol Hernández, signed on Jan. 15, 2021.

The Orioles now have a whopping 13 international players in their current team top 30 prospects list via MLBPipeline.com including Basallo at No. 2, Tavera at No. 15, Sanchez at No. 23 and Almeyda at No. 30.

That is a big number of ranked international prospects and with Basallo projected to be at Triple-A when 2025 begins, they are closing in on producing their first homegrown international big leaguer under Elias/Perez. And now, more prospects for their international program will be added on Wednesday.  

Birdland Caravan: Birdland Caravan is back for another year running this time Jan. 30-Feb. 1 for various events around the state. Numerous O's players are scheduled to appear, and a partial list includes Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Colton Cowser, Jordan Westburg and Ryan Mountcastle.

For more click here and click here.