James Fox already spoiled most of the names and positions in his international signing preview, but the opening of the signing period on Sunday indeed confirmed most of the new players entering the White Sox organization.
The White Sox today stamped seven signings, five of whom were in James’ preview.
*Luis Reyes, arguably the top Dominican pitcher in the class, signed for $700,000 (Signing photo).
*Outfielder Abraham Nuñez Jr. signed for $700,000. (Signing photo)
*Cuban outfielder Rafael Álvarez signed for $300,000. (Signing photo)
*Juan Uribe Jr., who plays the same position as his father, signed for $200,000. Juan Uribe Sr. still looks Juan Uribe, non-senior.
*D’Angelo Tejada, a 17-year-old shortstop from the Dominican Republic, signed for $350,000.
The White Sox’s press release also included two players not revealed in the FutureSox preview:
*Outfielder Albert Alberto, a 16-year-old Dominican who already stands 6-3 and 200 pounds, signed for $50,000.
*Denny Lima, an 18-year-old, 6-foot, 160-pound Dominican righty who signed for $10,000.
The White Sox added that they expect additional signings in the coming weeks. One should be Venezuelan catcher Angelo Hernández. It was a surprise to see his name omitted thus far, because James mentioned him in the preview, and Francys Romero said Hernández will sign with the Sox for $500,000.
Assuming Hernández is still a go and Romero’s figure is correct, $2.85 million of the White Sox’s bonus pool has been accounted for, leaving them with $2.434 million remaining.
Unlike the White Sox’s seven-figure signings of Oscar Colás and Erick Hernandez a year ago, none of these signings should immediately merit consideration for the organization’s top 10 prospect lists.
Fortunately for Marco Paddy, his work is already disproportionately represented. I wrote last month that the Baseball America’s top 10 White Sox prospects list comprised six international prospects, when no other BA prospect list at any point in Paddy’s tenure had more than two.
It turns out that 60 percent transcends a White Sox context. Baseball America posted a story today saying that the White Sox have the heaviest international representation of any top 10 list this winter, and the Yankees are the only other team with five.
Hall of Famer Minnie Miñoso, baseball’s first Black Latino star, spent the prime of his career with the White Sox in the 1950s. Miñoso was Cuban, and the White Sox continue to feature a Cuban presence to this day. Jose Abreu, Jose Contreras, Luis Robert, Alexei Ramirez and Yoan Moncada are all 21st century examples.
The trend extends to Chicago’s farm system, where outfielder Oscar Colas, third baseman Bryan Ramos and righthander Norge Vera are Cubans who headline the organization’s six international free agents in the top 10, the most of any team.
The other three are righthander Cristian Mena and shortstop Jose Rodriguez from the Dominican Republic and shortstop Lenyn Sosa from Venezuela.
Any experienced starting MLB second basemen or right fielders among them?
The Sox don’t need one of those. They have internal solutions.
Uribe.
Sr.?
That was the joke, yes.
We’ll no doubt get all-star starters in return for trading away all our unused bonus pool. Let all those other teams foolishly waste money on a bunch of unproven teenagers!
Albert Alberto is a great name. Let’s go.
I prefer Alberto Albert.
Is he a member of Marco Marc and the Funky Bunch?
Extend Marco Paddy
It’s partly a feather in Marco Paddy’s hat, but also partly an indictment of their domestic amateur scouting, lol
Unfortunately it’s much more the latter. The other org mentioned, the Yankees, have international prospects that are much more valued across the league by the other 28 teams, as evidenced by the large number of IFA signings who’ve been taken in the Rule-5 draft (I don’t think the White Sox have had a player taken in the last decade) and packaged in trades over the years
And to think they can do it without the great Marco Paddy.
In other news, the White Sox have signed RHRP Keynan Middleton, OF Jake Marisnick, and IF Erik Gonzalez to minor league deals. I consider these shrewd, value-added moves that provide depth they’re sorely lacking in the upper minors, and the sorts of moves they needed to make to cover up their lack of prospect development in Charlotte (hopefully that turns around a bit this year), but it hardly makes up for an offseason otherwise headlined by Andrew Benintendi and Mike Clevinger.
I hope Angelo Hernández does better work behind the plate than Angel does
I really don’t see why people think this is a successful IFA class. Even the Tigers, the fucking Tigers, have a more highly regarded class by the 3 main outlets (BA/Pipeline/Fangraphs). They’re signing twice as many players and their top players are more highly regarded than the White Sox top players.
https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2023/01/16/detroit-tigers-sign-international-prospects-enrique-jimenez-cristian-perez-anibal-salas/69810574007/
Who is calling this a successful class?
Mostly from the tenor of the last article and comments.
Kind of hard to get worked up about a bunch of 16 year olds, most of whom we will never see play baseball.
Shit! The Tigers bought a slightly different handful of lottery tickets! We’re really fucked now!
I’m not too worried. Hahn built this team to finish ahead of the Tigers. He has goals.
The number of lottery tickets matters too. The White Sox never sign more than 10 players, most orgs sign 20-30. The more lower bonus guys you sign (<$100K), the more likely just one of them turns into Jose Altuve, Jose Ramirez, Cristian Javier, Framber Valdez, Ozzie Albies, etc.
Why should any sub par decisions or actions from this organization surprise anybody? I’d be a hell of a lot more surprised if they actually did something good.
Is the international draft dead until the next CBA, or is that something that will continue to be revisited along with the qualifying offer?
The discussion can be reopened anytime.