TORONTO – Ezequiel Carrera’s entry point to professional baseball arrived in the spring of 2005 thanks to a tip from a family friend that the New York Mets were holding tryouts at their facility in Valencia, Venezuela. Previous workouts with the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies didn’t bear fruit for the teenager, so he made the 800-kilometre trip west from his Guiria Edo Sucre home to take another shot.
“I did a workout for the Mets, there were some American scouts that were there, they saw me and they liked me, so I signed,” the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder recalls through interpreter Josue Peley. “I was really good at soccer, volleyball and basketball and I had the physical abilities to make it in any of those sports. I wasn’t expecting it to happen in baseball, so I was really surprised by that.”
On Sunday, the annual July 2 international signing period opens for 2017-18, offering a chance for a new generation of kids aged 16 and up across Latin America to pursue their big-league dreams. This year’s frenzy will be covered by new rules set out in the collective bargaining agreement establishing a hard cap ranging from $4.75-$5.75 million per team.
The Blue Jays will be one of 16 teams working with a $4.75-million spending pool, with six teams allocated $5.25 million and eight teams at $5.75 million. Spending room can be traded once the signing period opens, allowing clubs to acquire up to 75 per cent of their original allocation.
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Big names go fast, as much of the legwork is done before July 2 actually arrives.
“For every Latin guy, it’s a date that’s really important for us,” says Carrera. “We know it’s coming, we know it’s out there and we know we have a chance to sign. I was grateful that the Mets gave me a chance to be with them.”
The Blue Jays are expected to be very active Sunday, as Baseball America has them linked to Brazilian right-hander Eric Pardinho, Dominican shortstop Miguel Hiraldo, Venezuelan righty Alejandro Melean, Panamanian shortstop Leonardo Jimenez and Dominican outfielder Alberto Rodriguez.
Each of them is ranked within Baseball America’s top 50 eligible players, and they are tied to several Venezuelans further down the rankings, as well.
“We will absolutely be as aggressive as we can possibly be,” says general manager Ross Atkins.
While the annual June draft is often described as a crapshoot, international period signings are even more volatile given that players are younger and there is far less information available on them than prospects in North American colleges and high schools.
It’s in that market where a team’s scouting and evaluation really needs to be on point.
“I think a lot of people struggle with that – how do you have a good process internationally?” says Atkins. “If you look at the teams that have done a good job over history, you can peel back the layers and understand that in most cases, there was a very good process.”
What makes a good process?
The answer, to some degree, is making sure consistent and high quality background work is done on every player through interviews and multiple looks in varied environments.
“It’s information gathering as we’re trying to learn what motivates players, what are indicators of future success,” Atkins explains. “If we have a consistent process in how we’re gathering that information, then we can more readily make sense of it. What we ultimately want to be doing is creating consistency across departments, as well, so that high performance and analytics are as integrated into the international signings as they are in the draft. We’re not there yet but we’re working towards that.”
The Blue Jays have high-resolution cameras and other data technology at their Latin American facilities. When they work out players, they are able to track some information that helps build an objective base of data to be used in modelling assessments.
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Essentially, for Atkins, it comes down to, “how do you weigh the subjective and somehow actually make it objective in your process.”
For the players teams are evaluating, the calculus is often as simple as who is offering the most money.
While a handful of players will receive multi-million dollar bonuses, the majority will receive far, far less. Bonuses of up to $10,000 aren’t counted against the spending pool, and players are often needed to fill out clubs’ Dominican Summer League teams.
Some Latin American kids will give up plans for the future – Carrera intended to attend university with an eye towards becoming a high school physical education teacher and coach – while others have nothing but a run at a pro baseball career on the horizon, and will take a pittance to make it happen.
“It wasn’t a bonus I could live on, but I could see more options with baseball than anything else,” Carrera says of his decision to sign. “It wasn’t about the money, it was about the challenge and me wanting to succeed in the sport.
“There are a lot of big bonuses out there, millions of dollars being given left and right, and my advice to those guys is not to think about the money but to think about their dreams, and think what you can accomplish. If somebody can give you an opportunity to reach your dreams, you can’t think twice. If you have a chance to go out there and achieve your dream, I think you should do it.”
