Every few years, an international talent emerges on the market outside of the normal July 2 timeline to captivate baseball fans regardless of team.
This one is Oscar Luis Colás, a Cuban 21-year-old left-handed outfielder who also could serve as a left-handed pitcher. He's been hanging out in Japan's minor leagues with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and reports on Friday from Las Mayores' Francys Romero and ESPN's Jeff Passan said he's left Cuba with designs on a major league contract. From Passan:
At 6-foot-1, 210 pounds, Colás projects as a power-hitting left-handed outfielder, and could be a lefty pitcher as well. Scouts who have seen Colás in recent years question his ability to become a full-time, two-way player but said his fastball, which runs up to 95 mph, is of high enough quality to allow him to try to play both ways.
Presumably every team is going to have interest, and with a minimal gap between the largest initial bonus pool and the smallest one, most teams have a decent shot at putting together the best monetary offer.
In situations where it's "White Sox vs. the Field," the White Sox aren't often a smart wager. As a high-profile Cuban defector, however, Colás fits into a very specific category where the White Sox have historically stepped up. Jose Abreu (in 2013) and Luis Robert (in 2017) made all the sense in the world for the Sox when they first became available, and the Sox didn't dick around. They were in the mix from the start, never fell from the reports as the pack thinned, and when the smoke cleared, the Sox prevailed with the top offer both times.
That last part is important. You can point to all the Cuban talent the White Sox have -- and certainly it came up during the introductions for each player -- but the Sox didn't get cute and attempt to use comfort as currency the way they did with Manny Machado.
Based on the contracts they gave to Abreu and Robert this winter, it doesn't seem like they've second-guessed their aggressiveness. And based on the way they marketed Yasmani Grandal, they're well aware of the strength of their Cuban core:
Generating the top bid will be harder to accomplish this time. Unlike the Abreu and Robert signings, when they just needed cash on hand and the stomach to spend it, posting the top dollar requires trades with teams for additional bonus pool space, and we haven't seen the Sox try to do that. Like civil engineers once reversed the flow of the Chicago River, the White Sox will have to figure out a way to acquire international money after years of trading it away for minimal gain.
The White Sox do have a history of pursuing Cubans over prospects from other countries even under the hard cap. Their only significant big-money signing this past July 2 was 22-year-old shortstop Yolbert Sanchez, to whom they gave $2.5 million., and they signed three Cubans the year before.
(Colás can sign before July 2 if he chooses expediency over a maximum offer, and one wonders if the Sox might've been able to distinguish themselves from the pack had they retained the $1.25 million they sent to get rid of the buyouts for Nate Jones and Welington Castillo.)
If Colás were a top-flight 16-year-old from the Dominican Republic, there'd be no point in writing this post. It just so happens that two of the White Sox's biggest deviations from their usual behavior -- one a franchise-high free agent contract, the other a record investment in a teenage amateur -- has involved top-end Cuban talent. If the White Sox like Colás as much as these initial reports say they should, I'd imagine they'll be in the thick of it from the get-go.
