Ranma wrote:The new international signing guidelines have now instituted a hard cap on J2 signings, though we can sign as many prospects for $10,000 or less as we want without it counting toward our bonus pool. While the Dodgers are going to be allotted $4.75 million to sign international prospects within a given period, we can trade for more salary slots from other teams to push our pool total to the maximum amount of $8,312,500, which is $1.75 million less than any other team can spend.
In relation to the possibility of signing Shohei Otani, the Dodgers can only offer $300,000 if he were to make himself available within the next 12 months starting tomorrow. This is due to the fact that the organization is still serving its penalty for going over its allotted bonus pool in 2015. The most amount of money he'd be giving up to sign with us would be $9,762,500.
However, if we can convince him to wait maybe 4 months or so until July 2, 2018 based on the end of the NPB season and the start of MLB spring training, the Dodgers could offer the aforementioned $8-million+ max as a signing bonus to minimize his losses. If he were impatient, we can only hope that he really isn't concerned about money and will be confident enough in his ability to earn a big-money MLB contract later on based on his abilities. Who knows? Maybe he can use the extra time to recuperate from whatever ailments that are currently keeping him from pitching.
Of course, the Dodgers could offer him a contract extension after his first season with the team to a big-money deal, but MLB would come down on us for circumventing its salary regulations. However, as long as we don't actually promise to give him a big contract no matter what (e.g. injury, bad performance, etc.), I'd be willing to see the Dodgers take on MLB and fight it in court on the legality of signing him to a huge contract extension as a reward for performing well after his first MLB season assuming he does so and in appreciation of him taking less money to join us initially.
To be honest, it'd be better to avoid all the pains and headaches if we could get Shohei to wait a few months. In any case, I want to pull out all the stops in order to sign the guy.
Andrew Simon, MLB.com (6/30/17)Under the new collective bargaining agreement, which went into effect prior to this season, the rules for signing international prospects are changing. Under the new rules, every team will get at least $4.75 million to spend on international prospects. However, teams that receive Competitive Balance Picks, which are given to clubs in small markets and/or with low revenue, will get slightly more.
Any team receiving a Competitive Balance Round A pick in the Draft will get $5.25 million in international bonus pool money, and teams receiving a Competitive Balance Round B pick will have $5.75 million to spend. A club can trade away as much of its international pool money as it would like, but a team can only acquire up to 75 percent of its initially allotted pool. That means the most any team can possibly spend is $10,062,500. It's also worth noting that signings of $10,000 or less do not count against a team's bonus pool.
The penalties
Under the previous CBA, teams could exceed their bonus pool, but would incur penalties that were dependent on the size of the overage. That is no longer the case, and each team now must deal with a "hard cap" that cannot be exceeded under any circumstances. That said, penalties teams incurred in past signing periods, under the previous CBA, still carry over to 2017. That affects the A's, Braves, Astros, Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Nationals, Padres, Reds and Royals, each of whom are in the maximum penalty. That means they cannot sign international prospects for more than $300,000 in this signing period.
Teams Gear Up for International Signing Day
Ranma wrote:Longenhagen mentioned in his FanGraphs article, that this year's international class is weak since scouts prefer prospects who are projected to stick at shortstop while the strength of the talent crop seems to be with outfielders. Most of the prospects may have less projectability but are supposedly more developed physically.
While more signings are sure to come, it's interesting to see the Dodgers already loading up on SS prospects with 4 commitments and 2 OFers in the fold so far.
Ben Badler, Baseball America (7/3/17)Los Angeles Dodgers
George Heredia, of, Dominican Republic, $300,000.
Amin Valdez, ss, Dominican Republic, $300,000.
Eddys Leonard, ss, Dominican Republic, $200,000.
Yhostin Chirinos, ss, Venezuela
Jorbit Vivas, ss, Venezuela
Rushenten Tomsjansen, of, Curacao
Jesus Valdez, ss, Dominican Republic
Jonathan Alvarez, rhp, Dominican Republic
Mayron Cathalina, of, Aruba
Axel Acevedo, rhp, Dominican Republic
Vladimir Perez, ss, Dominican Republic
Martin Santana, rhp, Dominican Republic
Bennony Robles, lhp, Dominican Rpeublic
Brayan Rodriguez, of, Dominican Republic
Jenderson Jardines, c, Venezuela
Randy Rodriguez, inf, Dominican Republic
Jimmie Feliz, of, Dominican Republic
Imanol Vargas, of, Dominican Republic
Jeffry Abreu, rhp, Domincian Republic
Andrew Budier, lhp, Nicaragua
Jeisson Cabrera, rhp, Dominican Republic
Darlin Camilo, rhp, Dominican Republic
Daniel Cruz, rhp, Dominican Republic
Carlos de loe Santos, rhp, Dominican Republic
Jonathan Vasquez, rhp, Dominican Republic
2017 Team-by-Team International Signing Tracker
