The Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to terms with 22 international players, including top international prospects Wilman Diaz, Jesus Galiz, and Rayne Doncon. In total, the Dodgers signed 12 pitchers, three catchers, four infielders, and three outfielders.
Diaz, 17, is the No. 3 rated international prospect by MLB.com. The Maracay, Venezuela native is the top teenager of the 2020-2021 class and the top shortstop according to MLB.com. The athletic and offensively gifted shortstop hails from the same program as Dodger farmhand and 2018 international signee Diego Cartaya.
Galiz, 17, is the top catching prospect in the international signing class is rated the No. 8 overall prospect by MLB.com. The Maracaibo, Venezuela native was a former infielder that has switched over to catching, earning high marks for his receiving skills and his baseball IQ.
Doncon, 17, is one of the top infielders in the Dominican Republic that trains at the Chal Baseball Academy. The talented infielder has a physically imposing presence with power potential at the plate.
The Dodgers bolster another strong class, as they have signed the top prospect out of Venezuela for the third straight year after signing Cartaya in 2018 and Luis Rodriguez in 2019. The rest of the international signees include:
| Name | Country | Position |
| Abad, Dailoui | Dominican Republic | RHP |
| Alonso, Juan | Panama | OF |
| Avila, Carlos | Venezuela | C |
| Barreto, Isaac | Colombia | OF |
| Bastardo, Miguel | Venezuela | RHP |
| Campos, Elio | Venezuela | SS |
| Carpintero, Jorge | Venezuela | LHP |
| Diaz, Wilman | Venezuela | SS |
| Diaz, Brian | Venezuela | RHP |
| Doncon, Rayne | Dominican Republic | SS |
| Galiz, Jesus | Venezuela | C |
| Guerra, Luis | Venezuela | SS |
| Jimenez, Jhonny | Dominican Republic | RHP |
| Jimenez, Sebastian | Venezuela | LHP |
| Lasso, Roger | Panama | OF |
| Liranzo, Thayron | Dominican Republic | C |
| Martinez, Maximo | Venezuela | RHP |
| Ramirez, Kelvin | Venezuela | RHP |
| Romero, Christian | Mexico | RHP |
| Santillan, Pedro | Mexico | RHP |
| Soto, Missael | Dominican Republic | RHP |
| Vilchez, Michael | Curacao | RHP |
Discussion (68)
Disagree, not disagreeable
Without question Justin Turner will be our starting third baseman in 2021. Come on!
I believe that RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, the Dodgers are the best team in the NL. The Padres have narrowed the gap, however, and the Nats and Mets are better as well. The Braves are about the same considering their additions and subtractions.
When you are forced to make a move, just to make a move, then that move can be of the dope-fiend variety. I would not be afraid to start the season with the team we have. Most here think Lux will be a star… OK, let him prove it and if he can’t, you still have a Top 10 2B in Chris Taylor, who BTW is playing for his first big contract.
Ed Rios has averaged a HR every 10 AB’s. Yes, it’s a small sampling but the guy is coachable, plays the game right and works hard. He has made himself into an above-average third-baseman. Let’s see what he’s got. Bellinger and Muncy will likely rebound and Will Smith will have more experience.
Look for Mookie Betts to elevate his game in his second year as a Dodger and then there is Corey Seager. Even without JT or another 3B, that is a lineup better than the Padres. It’s one thing to sign JT and give over the LuxTax, but quite another to trade for a Kris Bryant and be $15 million over after some teams are struggling for their lives. To me, that’s a bad look!
McKinstry, Reks, Raley, could see time in LF with Pollock… and there could be surprises. AF could execute a blockbuster trade… or he could do nothing and wait and see. The only problem I see is that the Dodegrs have too many Left Handed Hitters, but there are worse problems.
According to reports they are still in on both Hands and Yates. But they might be done otherwise. Maybe AF wants to let JT walk. Eric., Soria is drawing interest from an AL East team, the Jays. Reported a couple of hours ago.
OK, maybe the Dodgers are done! Or maybe they will sign another reliever to a contract that will keep them under the CBT. If JT does not re-sign with the Dodgers, I can see them staying under the CBT. If they sign him, then they will be over the CBT threshold. At least for one year. I could see JT getting 2 year/$20 Million from the Dodgers or 3 Years/$25 Million. Beyond that, it’s a hard NO!
If they don’t sign JT, why not try and stay under the salary cap and see if Rios or even Muncy can handle 3B. If not, there s always a trade deadline da=eal for a 3B or 1B. Who knows, Rios and Lux may be beasts?
Got my World Series Champion Justin Turner bobble head today. Pretty cool looking JT holding the World Series Trophy. I was going to get a Mookie Betts one, but they were sold out.
I will go ahead and open a can of worms and say that young Latin American signees now have a distinct advantage over their American counterparts. I see that the Dodgers signed 22 International players on day 1. They were all Latin American players. Dominican = 5, Panama = 2, Columbia and Curacao 1 each, Mexico = 2 and Venezuela = 11. We will see how many players are finally drafted and the Dodgers have 5.3 million to spend. In 2019, the Mets drafted 61 International players and there were overall,1022 signings. Obviously, the bonuses vary dramatically.
Latin American is fertile ground. The number of Hispanic players in MLB is now 32% and rising. Kids can sign at 16 1/2. They start being groomed for MLB scouts at a very young age by the Buscones. Depending on your point of view, the Buscones are either surrogate parents/agents/financial advisors or shady flesh peddlers. The truth is somewhere in the middle depending on the Buscone but they take 30% PLUS from a kid’s bonus. Once signed, the prospects attend each MLB’s team academy which provides housing, food, education, instruction in English and of course baseball instruction. A players and the team’s commitment to the education part varies but the kids drop out of their local education system by 17. Nobody there is playing with milk cartons for gloves and balls wrapped in electrical tape. (interestingly, at spring training complexes for at least the Rangers-Royals and Cincy-Cleveland, new hotel-like buildings have been constructed to house and feed young players on site, not using local hotels)
While MLB has cut 40 MiLB teams in the U.S., no teams were cut in Latin America. The Dominican Summer League (DSL) has 45 teams. 14 teams, including the Dodgers, have 2 teams in the league.
So, a young latin player now gets advantages unavailable to American kids, IMO.
A latin kid can sign by 17. He gets trained by an MLB player development staff with quality facilities and equipment and plays competitively against good completion for a couple of years prior to coming to the US MiLB. At age 22 a prospect might have 6 years in professional baseball. And they’re good. Fernando Tatis signed at 16 and in his 5th year in pro ball he made the Padres opening day starting roster at short; by age 20.
For the most part, US kids can’t do that. They don’t sign until they are out of high school, out of community college or 21 or after junior year in college. While the better prospects play in showcase games for scouts (like the 12 to 16 year olds do in Latin America), most US kids plug along on their high school and summer teams and hope to be drafted in one of 20 rounds now.
In college, a select few college kids play in high quality summer leagues like the Cape Cod League. Most just plug along in a 60 game, often cold weather, college program until they’re 21. Once done with that, each kid must start his journey in pro baseball where the latin kids have been playing for 2 to 6 years.
As things have evolved, it’s no wonder we see more young Latin stars and fewer young US kids making am impact.
The number 1 export of the Dominican isn’t rum or sugar or tourism. It’s baseball players.
If they sign Yates, and they are one of the finalists, they will have to move someone off of the roster.
Should we be messing with our future #1 Buehler give him extra $700k or lock him up long term be done with it
Yates is supposedly close to a deal with 5 teams in the running. Doesn’t look good for us. AF usually stays away from bidding wars. Still think we need another end of game option. Don’t see how we stay under 206 and get better than last year
Not sure if this is a real quote or not, but it is funny.
Houston GM’s explanation as to how they plan to use Baez.
James Click on Pedro Báez, who is a notoriously slow worker: “We’ll plan to use him in the seventh inning just to give everyone a little bit extra time to get a beer before they stop selling beers at the end of that inning.”
Another Minor league team that was contracted sues MLB and their parent club, the Astros. Asking 15 mil in damages.
Tampa is going to allow a little over 7000 people to thier games. MLB wants to keep the 7 inning double headers, man on 2nd in extra’s and the universal DH this season because of Covid concerns. All of this yet to be worked out.
Lay off Dolittle. He is not coming away from the East Coast! Stop it already!
Buehler asked for 4 mil, the team offered 3.2. Barnes wants 2, and the team offered 1.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I read that Sean Doolittle and Joakim Soria are expected to get only one year deals. Why not take a chance on them? It’s only one year.
What the hell is Doc going to do with Adam Kolarek. Bring him in when a situation happens that there’s two outs and a left handed batter is coming up? That’s a total waste of a roster spot in my opinion. Same goes for Scott Alexander. Same goes for Floro against the other side of the plate.
Does Garrett Cleavinger have options?
Can we rid ourselves of Joe Kelly?
Maybe this idea is totally absurd, but could the Dodgers sign Maikel Franco to play third base with Rios?
Franco vs lefties, would be a cheap option, and he would be the right-hander batter off the bench, in case JT doesn’t come back to the team.
Is Belli more valuable than Seager?
Is Belli earning more beacuse of the MVP award?
I don’t see any way they’re under the threshold unless they make Rios the every day third baseman.
Or find a way to trade Kelly, Pollock, Kenley or Price.
Urias signs for $3.6 million. Nice raise for him
With Bellinger and Seager now under contract at $16.1MM and $13.75MM respectively, the Dodgers are now down to approximately $8MM under CBT. There are three remaining players whose salary is still TBD, and whatever the differences between what Cot’s projects and the actual, will define the final amount south of CBT threshold. Cot’s projects salaries as follows:
Buehler – $2.4MM
Urias – $2.6MM
Barnes – $1.75MM
I am guessing that Buehler will get closer to what Max Fried agreed to, $3.5MM, possibly more. Buehler’s career numbers are superior to Fried’s.
As of now, if the Dodgers sign JT, they will be exceeding the CBT threshold, so they might as well add Yates, or Rosenthal, or Colome. For 2021, the Dodgers look to be the only team to exceed the threshold.
Kris Bryant signed for $19.5MM. I do not see him as a Dodger.
We signed 22 international players today. If you’ll notice, half of them are from Venezuela. AF has obviously found an advantage there and wants to play it for as long as he can.
Damn, the damn has been broken. Can’t wait to see what we do
Phillies offer J.T. Realmuto 5-year, 9-figure deal… allegedly!
Kluber to the Yankees!
According to one of the SD beat writers, it’s now down to 5 teams for Yates and the Padres aren’t one of them. They would have to substantially up their offer in order to be competitive. He doesn’t name the 5 teams.
Maybe by the time the weekend is over we’ll have Yates and JT on the 2021 roster…………………………………….or not.
Seager to get $13.75 MM per MLB Trade Rumors