Agreement with OF Bonilla is Blue Jays’ latest big swing in international free agency
TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays took their newest massive swing at elite impression in worldwide free company by reaching phrases on a $4.1-million cope with outfielder Enmanuel Bonilla, their largest-ever bonus out there class.
At 77.6 per cent of their 2023 worldwide bonus pool of $5,284,000, the settlement, lengthy projected by Baseball America and confirmed by an business supply Sunday as the brand new signing interval opened, it’s additionally among the many franchise’s greatest eggs-in-one-basket performs.
In 2015, underneath a earlier worldwide signing system, the Blue Jays exceeded their bonus pool and pushed themselves right into a penalty zone by paying Vladimir Guerrero Jr. $3.9 million, a deal that meant they couldn’t signal any single participant in that class for greater than $300,000 in 2016.
A $3.5-million bonus for infield prospect Orelvis Martinez in 2018 represented 70 per cent of the membership’s bonus pool that signing interval. Bonilla’s bonus additionally exceeds the $4 million given to Adeiny Hechavarria in 2010 as a part of a $10-million deal for the Cuban shortstop underneath guidelines very completely different from the present framework.
Baseball America ranked Bonilla, a 16-year-old from the Dominican Republic, because the No. 4 prospect within the present group of eligible worldwide free brokers. At 6-1, 190-pounds, the right-handed hitter has what BA calls “high-end bat speed and the ability to drive the ball with impact, giving him a chance to be a 25-plus home run threat.”
MLB Pipeline, which had Bonilla ranked seventh on this yr’s class, described him as having “good instincts with a solid arm” defensively giving him an opportunity to play centre subject, though additional bodily improvement might push him to a nook spot.
With the Blue Jays within the midst of a aggressive cycle that ought to constantly depart them selecting within the backside third of the draft, the worldwide market is a vital pathway to impression prospects, as any crew can land the perfect participant in a given yr.
Major League Baseball had sought to create a long-discussed worldwide draft throughout negotiations on the present collective bargaining settlement, however failed to achieve a cope with the gamers affiliation.
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