The Braves’ increased emphasis on international free-agent markets yielded a couple of big signings Thursday on the first official day of the international signing period, and were the impetus for a trade that sent pitcher Cody Martin to the Oakland Athletics.
Shortstop Derian Cruz ($2 million bonus) and center fielder Christian Pache ($1.4 million), a pair of 16-year-old Dominicans, agreed to deals with the Braves, who’ve stated all along that they would emphasize pitching and up-the-middle defenders.
Cruz and Pache were ranked among the top 10 international free-agent prospect by at least one service. Cruz, a switch-hitter with exceptional speed, was rated No. 5 by Baseball America. Pache, a line-drive gap hitter who’s considered one of the best athletes in the class, was No. 10 on MLB.com’s top 30.
The Braves are expected to land more players during the international signing period, which features mostly 16- and 17-year-olds from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, who are not subject to the baseball free-agent draft. The signings of Cruz and Pache alone would surpass the Braves’ total international-pool spending allotment of $2,458,400, which is why team officials worked long hours Thursday to complete three trades to acquire other teams’ signing slots before making its international signings official.
Teams pay steep penalties for going over their assigned spending allotment, and teams with budgetary constraints can’t afford to spend what can amount to double the price of the actual bonus when penalties are attached.
The first of those deals was completed Thursday when Martin was sent to the Athletics for the 53rd international bonus-pool slot, which has an allocation of $388,400. Thursday night, the Braves trade two minor leaguers, right-hander Caleb Dirks and outfielder Jordan Paroubeck, to the Dodgers for the No. 87 slot ($249,000), and traded minor league right-hander Garrett Fulenchek to the Rays for the Nos. 73 ($299,000) and 103 slots ($195,200).
With those three deals, the Braves added another $1,131,600 to their international-pool spending allotment, pushing the total to nearly $3.6 million.
Martin, 25, was a non-roster spring-training invitee who won a spot on the Braves’ opening-day roster and went 2-3 with a 5.40 ERA in 21 relief appearances during two major league stints, with 24 strikeouts and seven walks in 21 2/3 innings.
Dirks, 22, had a 0.67 ERA in 17 relief appearances in low- and high-Single A this season, and the former 15th-round pick was 2-2 with a 1.58 ERA in 38 relief appearances over two minor league seasons. Paroubeck, 20, came from the Padres in the April 5 six-player trade that sent Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton Jr. to San Diego. He had participated only in extended-spring training games for the Braves.
Fulenchek, 19, was a second-round draft pick in 2014 who was 0-7 with a 4.65 ERA in 13 rookie-ball games (11 starts) in two seasons, including one start in the just-begun 2015 rookie-ball season.
Last month, the Braves signed a pair of 17-year-old international free agents, shortstop Jose Fernandez ($55,000) and pitcher Jassel De La Cruz ($200,000), whose fastball has been clocked as high as 97 mph. Those signing bonuses and others counted against the previous signing-bonus period, not the 2015-2016 period.
Shortly after John Hart took over as Braves president of baseball operations, replacing fired general manager Frank Wren, Hart and assistant general manager John Coppolella set about beefing up the international scouting department by hiring away international scouting guru Gordon Blakeley from the Yankees and hiring Marc Russo as director of international operations and Mike Silvestri as director of Latin American scouting.
Hart said this winter that the Braves would put much more emphasis and resources into mining the international markets, and to that end Blakeley spends at least half of his time in Latin American countries, leading what Hart calls his “SEAL team” of scouts looking to add top young talent through that free-agent marketplace.
“With the talent level that’s coming out of Latin America, I think it’s one of the best ways to impact your system,” Hart said in the offseason. “Obviously it’s there or the draft where you primarily acquire your players – you certainly have trades and free agency, but as far as your young players, it’s probably the best way to do it. Obviously like they have in the draft, you have certain rules and regulations that you have to follow (in scouting and signing international players). It’s a little bit of the Wild West, but not like what it used to be. But I think we have a real good veteran team, led by Gordy Blakeley, Marc Russo (SIC), Mike Silvestri. Those three guys are down there. They’ve all been, in one way shape or form, involved in successful signings of a number of international players.
“We look at it this way: We want to be real good in the July 2 signing date when you can acquire the 16-year-olds primarily out of Venezuelan, Dominican Republic, and to a lesser degree Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia, all of those places, for the young players. And secondly, to really have a feel for the Asian market. A little different situation there, but the younger players, you can post them, and who do you want to get involved with there. The other piece obviously is the Cuban market, and even to a degree Mexico, the professional leagues there. But I think all things international, if you’re out there and you’re getting after it, you can do a lot of things signing players.”
