Nats Start Making Some Minor-League Signs
Ordinarily, this is the stuff of mid-December or January, not mid-June (or March 108).
● Apparently there aren’t enough Jacksons in the system, so the Nats got one more in Jackson Coutts, 1B/OF, a junior from the Univ. of Rhode Island who hit .451 with 4HR and 12RBI in 13 games.
● The Nats also picked up another junior – Gio Diaz from St. Mary’s College (CA), an infielder who hit .396/.442/.417 in 13G with 4BB and 2K in 53PA.
● Having signed #4 pick Brady Lindlsy, the batterymate of #1 Cade Cavalli, the Nats did the same for #5 pick Mitchell Parker with the signing of Raymond Torres Jr. at San Jacinto Junior College. The freshman Torres hit .444/.528/.667 with 12 RBI in 13 games.
Where these guys end up in 2021 is anyone’s guess. Thus far, there have been no corresponding releases.
Seems the Nats scouting in 2020 consisted of sorting all NCAA/NJCAA batters by average.
Is the window open for the Nats (or any MLB team) sign players released by other MLB teams?
Nats must really believe in their area scouts in TX/OK/FL. Realize those are prospect rich areas, but even so, seems like a very large percentage of their top picks are from those states.
The signing tracking will be a helluva lot easier this year, and two picks are already in the bag.
Round. Pick; slot value; signing value; difference
1. Cavalli; $3,030k; NA; NA
2. Henry; 1,310k; NA; NA
2C. Infante; 884.4k; NA; NA
3. Powell; 618.2k; NA; NA
4. Lindsly; 464.5k; 20k; +444.5k
5. Parker; 346.8k; 100k; +246.8k
I’m a bit intrigued here who the Nats are hoarding money for. Cole Henry is a sophomore, so he’s a risk to return to LSU, and Infante is a HSer, so he’ll command a bit more. But neither of them were in the conversation for first round picks, so I’d be surprised if they demanded first round bonuses. My guess: Cavalli signs for slot. Henry signs for slightly above slot (like $1.5-7m), Infante signs for about $1.1-2m, and Powell signs for slot.
Still so much uncertainty with everything this year. Will be interesting to see.
I saw an article saying they have promised $1.2M to Infante. I’m not seeing a lot to get excited about with him, but as always, I hope I’m wrong.
His profile sounds sort of similar to Carter Kieboom’s, albeit with a less polished bat (but that’s why Kieboom was a first rounder and Infante a 3rd rounder). He plays adequate SS defence, and projects to develop quite a bit of power. The question seems to be his patience, and tends to strike out too easily, but with HS picks, their development plan is much less clear but also builds years of stalled progress into it. Remember how Michael Taylor was drafted as a SS? Remember how Bryce Harper was a catcher when we drafted him? Sounds like Infante has the tools.
I’m mostly just excited to get another HS bat in this system! HS bats are something of a unicorn to the franchise. Since we drafted Harper a decade ago (I know he wasn’t technically a HSer), we’ve selected a grand total of 5 HS bats: Justin Connell, Kieboom, Blake Perkins, Jakson Reetz, and Drew Ward. Connell and Reetz are the only two left now.
There are some really good reports on Torres coming out of high school (just Google him), and obviously he hit well in the short season at San Jac. Not a bad $20K investment. He’s smallish for a catcher but reportedly throws well.
Diaz @ St Mary’s in the northern Cal Bay Area was a good teammate to young Casey Candiotti whose father we recall
As Tom with numerous teams …
Any ideas about what the plans are as far as AAA Fresno? The Lerners are playing it conservative, saving money because the virus isn’t going away anytime soon. One would think Fresno would be an unnecessary expense?
Geographical realignment has been mentioned as part of the
contract oncontraction of the minors, so that East Coast Teams won’t have affiliates on the west coast. Coincidentally (conveniently), the PDC for Fresno expires in September 2020.