White Sox make international additions despite restrictions

(White Sox)

On the Fourth of July, let’s take a second to acknowledge what the White Sox did on the Second of July.

Still limited to a $300,000 maximum bonus as they serve the second year of their penalty for blowing out their budget signing Luis Robert, the White Sox signed five players. MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez relayed the dollars

  • Luis Pineda, catcher, Venezuela — $300,000
  • Bryan Ramos, third baseman, Cuba — $300,000
  • Harold Diaz, shortstop, Cuba — $300,000
  • Alberto Lemay Bernal, first baseman, Cuba — $250,000
  • Anthony Espinoza, shortstop, Venezuela — $250,000

… and a few details, referring to Ramos as “power-hitting,” Pineda as “hard-hitting,” Bernal as a “first baseman with power” and Espinoza as “slick fielding.” The White Sox said Diaz will join their Dominican Summer League affiliate this season, while the others are under contract for 2019.

The White Sox had $4,983,500 to spend, so they could have $3.5 million to trade if there are no more major signings on the way. The Sox were reportedly in on Miguel Tejada Jr., but the guy who broke the Welington Castillo suspension brought similar bad news:

Depending on the ages of the Cubans, it could be a continuation of last year’s strategy, where the Sox sign a handful of players for six figures and trade the money they don’t/can’t use. I bring up age because one of their $300,000 signings last year was Camilo Quinteiro, who is currently running a league-best.526 OBP in the Arizona Rookie League as a 21-year-old in his pro debut.

Over the last year, the White Sox traded pool money to acquire Yeyson Yrizarri from Texas, Ryan Burr from Arizona, Thyago Vieira from Seattle and Ricardo Pinto from Philadelphia. None of those guys is particularly exciting, but the Sox could get a couple of relievers out of it, especially if Yrizarri decides to give pitching a try.

 

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Milky✌️

Y’all got any more of them Tatis Jrs in there? We traded ours for an old candy bar that was all melted when we opened it

PauliePaulie

Another reason I hope the Sox stay out of the big $ FA market this offseason. After 2 years in the penalty, they need all the moneys to spend on this avenue of talent acquisition.

PauliePaulie

Exactly. All the more reason to not lose $1mil (or more) of that pool by signing a Free Agent with a QO attached.

Otter

If Machado or Harper want to sign, I’m 100% fine with loosing the international money. But I’m assuming you are too.

Other than that… there’s really no one the Sox should be throwing money at. I could argue Puig at a reasonable deal (if he’s even a FA, I can’t tell, but it looks like he is?); but I could see Puig getting 5/$110m if he has a decent second half and seeing how much money is going to be available this winter.

On final note, I don’t think the Sox will get Harper for a lot of reasons, but he’s probably a much more realistic target than Machado at this point. Harper might *just* be a 3-5 win player, and the Sox can afford that.

Another career torpedoed by Miguel Tejada’s B-12 shots.

Gus

that logo painted on the wall is giving me a headache.

Lurker Laura

Yeah, the pixelation on it is weird.

Gus

it looks like they hung the decal crooked on the door, then tried to paint the crooked decal and it looks like crap. the x is extra wonky.

also, i enjoyed your nancy faust article on that other website yesterday.

lil jimmy

There’s another website?
Been staying dry?

Gus

lol just sweat jimmy, hope you had a good 4th.

Lurker Laura

Thank you. Appreciate the compliment!