Baseball America – July 02, 2019

41

Top 10 international

prospects for 2019

by BEN BADLER

International players are committing

to sign with teams earlier than ever. Many

of the top 2019 players have had deals

with teams going back to 2017, when

they were 14 or even 13 years old. Once

a player has an agreement in place, he

typically stops going to open showcases

and workouts, which means it has been

a couple of years since most scouts have

seen the top 2019 players in a competi-

tive environment.

That makes it difficult for scouts and

for us at Baseball America to assess the

top players in the 2019 class based on

how they look right now. With that cave-

at, these are some of the more prominent

names to know for the July 2 signing

class. All players are 16 years old.

JASSON DOMINGUEZ, OF, D.R.

Team: Yankees

Dominguez has an exciting level of

explosiveness, athleticism and loud tools,

with plus grades scattered across his card.

He’s a bursty athlete with well above-av-

erage speed and arm strength, excellent

bat speed and big power from both sides

of the plate coming from a muscular,

5-foot-11, 195-pound frame. Scouts high-

est on Dominguez raved not only about

his tools but his ability to both hit and

hit for power in games. Several scouts

consider him the best overall player in

the 2019 class. Dominguez is expected to

command a bonus of around $5 million.

LUIS RODRIGUEZ, OF, VENEZUELA

Team: Dodgers

Rodriguez is one of the most com-

plete players in the 2019 class, with a

good combination of size (6-foot-2, 180

pounds), athleticism and hitting ability

from the right side. He has good plate

discipline, hits well in games against

older pitchers and has a natural ability

to lift the ball for power. He squares up

premium velocity and drives the ball with

impact to all fields. He runs the 60-yard

dash in around 6.7 to 6.8 seconds, giving

him a chance to stick in center field.

ROBERT PUASON, SS, D.R.

Team: Athletics

The Braves reached an agreement

to sign Puason when he was 14, but

that’s no longer happening. MLB did not

penalize the Braves for reaching an early

deal with Puason. They were penalized,

in part, because they had agreed to

sign Puason in a package deal, signing

other players from the same program to

inflated bonuses on the condition they

also secure Puason. He is now is expect-

ed to sign with the Athletics, likely for a

bonus around $5 million. A lean 6-foot-2,

Puason is highly athletic with some of

the best tools in the 2019 class, with plus

speed and arm strength.

BAYRON LORA, OF, D.R.

Team: Rangers

Nobody in the 2019 class has more

raw power than Lora. Even when he was

14 years old, he had more power than

most of the top players in the 2018 class.

At 6-foot-4, Lora has excellent strength

and bat speed, with the power to be a

middle-of-the-order masher. While he

projects as a corner outfielder, he’s flexi-

ble and moves well underway for his size.

His bonus is expected to be in the $4

million neighborhood.

ERICK PEÑA, OF, D.R.

Team: Royals

Peña has a lot of game experience

because he traveled to the United States

for different events. The 6-foot-3 Peña

is an advanced hitter with strong hands

who makes consistent hard contact from

the left side. He’s also bilingual, with a

bonus expected to be in the $3 to $4

million range.

RONNIER QUINTERO, C, VENEZUELA

Team: Cubs

Given the difficulties for players in

Venezuela right now, some of them have

spent a lot of time living and training in

the Dominican Republic, which has been

the case for Quintero. He is a power-hit-

ting catcher who generates easy pop

from left-center field over to his pull side.

He has a strong arm, too, though several

scouts have said he will need to work at

his receiving to stay behind the plate.

ISMAEL MENA, OF, D.R.

Team: Padres

Mena is one of the best athletes

and fastest runners in the class. He’s a

wiry, 6-foot-2 center fielder with well

above-average speed and excellent

range. Mena is a lefthanded hitter who

stays behind the ball well, and while his

power is mostly to the gaps, he has the

leverage and loft in his swing that sug-

gests more power as he gets stronger.

Mena is expected to top $2 million.

AROL VERA, SS, VENEZUELA

Team: Angels

Venezuela typically has a bundle of

smaller shortstops whose games play

up because of their game savvy and

instincts, but Vera is 6-foot-2 with a lean,

projectable frame. He’s a switch-hitter

with a smooth, easy swing from both

sides who has shown the ability to con-

trol the strike zone and hit well in games.

Vera is a solid-average runner with an

average arm.

ADAEL AMADOR, SS, D.R.

Team: Rockies

Amador is one of the more polished

players in the class. He played for the

Dominican Republic’s gold medal

team at the COPABE 15U Pan American

Championship in 2017. Then in August

2018 he was the starting shortstop at the

U-15 World Cup. Amador has a simple,

compact swing from both sides with

good balance, strike-zone judgment and

strong hands. He is expected to sign for

around $1.5 million.

REGGIE PRECIADO, SS, PANAMA

Team: Padres

At the U-15 World Cup last August,

Preciado was the leader of the

Panamanian team that won silver on its

home turf. He stands out for his hitting

ability from the right side, game aware-

ness and tall, projectable 6-foot-4 frame

with power beginning to emerge. He

kept it up in Panama’s junior national

league for players 17 and under, ranking

third in the league in OPS as a 15-year-

old. He’s expected to sign with the Padres

for more than $1 million.

have been very open to conversations. They’ve

listened to us. We might not agree at the end of

the day, but there is an open conversation.”

Recognizing their limitations in the collective

bargaining process, some trainers have had dis-

cussions with MLB officials about a draft. Other

trainers are more militantly anti-draft, believing

that once a draft is in place, MLB will wield even

more power against international amateurs.

“You have to do a lot of adjustments because

they’re not giving you enough time to prepare

the kids,” said a fourth trainer. “For a guy like

me, I like to develop players. I don’t think it’s

the best thing, signing 13-year-olds. I think

kids need more space to develop and I think the

early deals are not the best thing to happen. But

I prefer early deals more than a draft.”

One shared concern among trainers is the

impact that players reaching deals at 13 and 14

is having on signing bonuses. If a player who

might be a top five prospect in the 2021 class

takes a $2 million deal, that affects the market

for other top 2021 players. As more players in a

class commit, there’s a cascading effect, with

players becoming more eager to commit early,

knowing that with the hard-capped system, the

amount of pool space a team will have shrinks.

“I signed a player for over $1 million,” said

the second trainer. “If I keep working with this

guy until 2020, I know he’s going to be worth

$2 million. But right now, I have to take the

money the team is offering. Because if I wait

for him to develop the tools I think he can get,

I’m not going to get the money. That’s why the

organizations are paying the money for those

guys, because they know they’re paying $1 mil-

lion for a guy whose value will be $2 million by

his signing age.”

It doesn’t always work that way. Some play-

ers don’t get better the way a team anticipated,

or sometimes a team realizes it just missed the

mark in its early evaluation. Other times a play-

er has gotten better and ended up changing his

commitment to a new team or renegotiated a

bigger bonus with the same club.

The other side of teams tying up their pools

early and focusing on classes two to three years

away is what happens to players in the 2019

class who don’t know where they’re going to

sign yet. Those players are still 16, some even 15

years old. By the time they’re 17—and perhaps

even before then—their market value shrinks

because teams have limited money remaining.

With trainers already paying to carry four

years or more worth of players in their program

at once, what happens to the 17-year-old eligi-

ble player? “Drop them,” said a fifth trainer. “I

drop them. That is so bad for a kid.”

“It’s brutal,” said the fourth international

director. “I don’t like it all. It’s bad for business

for everyone. There’s no winning.” n

Dominican shortstop Robert Puason is highly

athletic with some of the loudest tools in the

2019 international signing class.

ALEX TRAUTWIG/MLB PHOTOS VIA GETTY IMAGES; STACY JO GRANT