Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
It’s been quite the international signing period for the Dodgers. They’ve landed an incredible amount of talent — both quantity and quality. But it all ends after tomorrow, as June 15 is the last day they can sign any international free agent who falls under the restrictions (younger than 23 years old).
It seems they might make one last push to sign some players.
Yes. Dodgers seem to be lining up their plan to sign more players by tomorrow.https://t.co/eddLfZO6dT
— Ben Badler (@BenBadler) June 14, 2016
This is not surprising, as it would behoove the Dodgers to maximize the amount of talent they can acquire via this front because after tomorrow, they’ll only be able to sign a player for no more than $300,000. They could sign seven guys at that amount, but they can’t go way overboard and sign one player for their entire $2,118,900 bonus pool (they can also trade for up to half of that amount, if they’re so inclined). That means no Kevin Maitan (Braves), Alfredo Rodriguez (Reds), Norge Ruiz or Jorge Ona. So one last splash would make the already successful 2015-16 period even better (despite losing out on Lucius Fox to the Giants last July 2).
The biggest names connected with the Dodgers as the deadline looms are Lazaro Armenteros and Vladimir Gutierrez. They reportedly held a private workout for Gutierrez and have had a presence at his past workouts. Badler has linked the Dodgers to him in the past as well.
If the Dodgers sign a big-name player, odds are quite good it’ll be Gutierrez. I doubt they land Armenteros, as he has a little baggage that isn’t entirely his fault. Also, he’s just not as good a prospect as some are making him out to be.
They passed on Yoan Moncada to sign all these players: Yadier Alvarez, Oscar Arzaga, Ronny Brito, Oneal Cruz, Yusniel Diaz, Starling Heredia — and many more. It has already been a really successful period. Adding some more prospects, and potentially one of Gutierrez’s ilk, would be the proverbial icing on the cake. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. We’ll also have a full recap of the signing period in the coming days or weeks.
