Nats Announce International Signs
Two multi-million dollar signingss from Venezuela headline Washington’s 2025 International Free Agents.
Brayan Cortesia, 17, is a 6’2″, 180 lb. shortstop described as “a plus runner who projects to stay in the infield and has a good shot to remain a shortstop [with] above-average arm.” His bonus has been pegged at $1.92 million.
Daniel Hernandez, 16, is an offensive-minded catcher (have the Nats had a defensive-minded catcher since Sandy Leon?) who’s listed at 5’11” and 168 lbs, but clearly they expect him to put on more weight if not grow another inch or two. While agile behind the plate, his arm is considered below-average. It’s the bat that has Nats scouts typing one-handed: “a loose, easy stroke with good bat control…drives the ball well in the air, showing the signs for his flashes of home run power to continue to trend up.”
Combined with Henrnandez’s $1.1 million bonus, the combined total of $3.02 million is nearly half of the Nats’ $6.261 million allotment.
Twelve other players have signed. We know their names, positions, and their country of origin but not the bonus amount:
- SS Ronny Bello, 17 (D.R.)
- RHP Jesus Carrasco, 18 (Ven.)
- C Junior Castillo, 17 (D.R.)
- C Edgardo Figueroa, 17 (Ven.)
- OF Jonierbis Garces, 17 (Ven.)
- SS Marconi German, 17 (D.R.)
- RHP Juan Lopez, 20 (D.R.)
- LHP Hernan Mejia, 17 (Ven.)
- RHP Manuel Ruiz, 18 (Ven.)
- RHP Jhondel Salas, 17 (Ven.)
- SS Adrian Tusen, 17 (D.R.)
- OF Esnaider Vargas, 17 (D.R.)
The Nats tendency to sign older (presumably overlooked) pitchers continues with three of the five will be 19 or older by the end of the DSL season. Eight of the 14 players were from Venezuela and nine are position players.
Otherwise the observation from one of my followers on BlueSky rings particularly true:”[It’s a] list of names. A bunch of dudes you might hear about in 3 to 5 years.”
Well Rizzo loves catchers
And one hits left handed and the other switch hits .
Let’s raise a pint of Miller to Bob Uecker !
MLB.com reported a few more of the bonuses:
Dominican Republic
Rony Bello, 2B, $450,000, Oscar Disla
Junior Castillo, C, Abraham Despradel
Marconi German, SS, $400,000, Federico Pelletier
Juan Lopez, RHP, Ricardo Vasquez
Adrian Tusen, SS, Virgilio De Leon
Esnaider Vargas, OF, $400,000, Pelletier
Venezuela
Jesus Carrasco, RHP, German Robles
Brayan Cortesia, SS, $1.92 million, Juan Indriago
Edgardo Figueroa, C, $300,000, Despradel
Jonierbis Garces, OF, $350,000, Robles
Daniel Hernandez, C, $1.1 million, Salvador Donadelli
Hernan Mejia, LHP, Indriago
Manuel Ruiz, RHP, Robles
Jhondel Salas, RHP, Indriago
That’s another $1.9m known, for almost exactly $5m of our $6.26m pool. I’d guess the remaining 7 guys, plus presumably another half dozen or so to fill out the roster will have gotten low 6 figure, or modest 5 figure deals to use the remaining $1.2m. Unless, the Nats kept a pot around to try and snag some of the players affected by Sasaki’s posting and domino effect?
Also interesting that we gave our big bonuses to Venezuelans this year. Without checking, I seem to recall giving all our really big ones to Dominicans in the past, while our Venezuelan scouting has clearly been increasing, we didn’t seem confident/connected enough to entice any of the big names.
Some new intl scouts in the stable sure looks like coming in with Victor Rodrieguez
Alas, it won’t be a “bunch of dudes” we hear about in three to five years, but only a small handful.
The signing of “older” guys — pretty much guys who no one wanted last year when they were first eligible — harkens to what the Nats were doing more than a decade ago when they had more (relative) success on the Latin front. I know off the top of my head that Rey Lopez, Difo, Suero, and Marmalejos were “older” signees, and I think several of the other “successful” ones were as well.
In addition to finding talent, there’s also now the big challenge of properly developing the younger talent through the contracted minors. The quality of play in the DSL seems quite questionable, although we forget sometimes that it is a high school league for nearly all practical purposes.
It will be fun to keep track of these guys. I do recall having the Rule 4 draft described as “being like your birthday, except that you don’t get to find out what you got in the boxes for two years.” The IFA is kind of the same, but the time delay is longer.