The Cincinnati Reds traded right handed pitcher Franderlin Romero earlier this evening to the Baltimore Orioles, which I wrote about here. At the time of the deal we didn’t know much about the return that was coming back from the Orioles, or if any other players were involved.
Now we know what the return was and it was 2015-2016 International Signing Bonus Pool money. The Reds acquired two different slot values that can be added to their overall pool of money they are allowed to spend without facing penalty. Updated: The Orioles, nor the Reds have announced which slots were moved in this deal, but given the Orioles slot values for the period the Reds have added somewhere between $400,200 and $902,700 to their overall pool to spend between today and June 15th.
The Cincinnati Reds have already spent nearly all of their allotted money for the current signing period, so they clearly have found a player, likely a good one given the amount of slot money value that they are going to be receiving from Baltimore that they want to sign in the next three weeks before the current period ends. The two biggest signings in this current period are for outfielder Cristian Olivo, who signed for $1,000,000 and shortstop Miguel Hernandez, who signed for $650,000. Whoever the player is that they are looking at signing appears to be commanding this kind of money, which is a good sign. Unless, of course, it’s a Cuban player.
Cuban players are commanding much larger bonuses than their skills seem to be worth, simply because they are older and further along the development track. The Reds are linked heavily with Cuban shortstop Alfredo Rodriguez and are reportedly set to pay him over $6M to sign when July 2nd rolls around. He’s slated to get more money than any of the other top prospects in the signing period, but he’s not considered one of the top prospects. He’s just an older player, who certainly does have some skills, but some strong questions as well about his ability to hit.
With just over three weeks remaining in the current signing period, the Reds plan is going to fall in place rather quickly. We will find out who the player is soon, as the team likely has already come to an agreement with him and went out in search for slot money in the right area to sign him without penalty, and thus costing them the second largest bonus pool money for the 2016-2017 signing period.