There’s more good news for the Pirates’ minor league system today, as Dejan Kovacevic is reporting that the club has agreed to a deal with 16-year old Mexican pitching prospect Luis Heredia this morning. The $2.6 million bonus will be split 75/25 between Heredia and his current team, Veracruz. DK has a big story about a trip to Mexico to watch Heredia coming on Sunday, but he wrote a bit about him in Tuesday’s notebook and on the PBC blog and the gist of it all is this: the kid’s 16 years old and can throw 94 mph.
I’ve actually got kind of mixed feelings here. I mean, obviously the Pirates should be out spending as much money as they need in Latin America. Like the draft it’s a source of relatively cheap talent; even the most expensive players only sign for $2-$3 million right now and that’s a relative drop in the bucket compared to free agency. I think Rene Gayo’s done a great job rebuilding the scouting department in that part of the world and we’re already seeing some players trickle into the upper American part of the farm system, with guys like Starling Marte, Exicardo Cayonez, and Jorge Bishop all making their American debuts in 2009-2010 and so if he sees a player that he wants the Pirates to sign, money should be no object. I’m also happy to see the Pirates sign one of the premium players in this year’s international market, if only to establish themselves as a player on the scene. And frankly, any time the Pirates can win a bidding war with anyone for anything, I think it’s a good sign.
What worries me, though, is that Heredia’s a 16-year old pitcher that we’re now paying a lot of money. Michael Ynoa, who the A’s signed to a massive $4.24 million bonus in 2008, has thrown just nine innings in America (in this year’s Arizona Rookie Leauge) and is now undergoing Tommy John surgery. He’ll miss most of 2011 rehabbing, then maybe get to High-A if he’s lucky in 2012 at which point the A’s will have to place him on the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. If they’re lucky, he’ll have pitched a season and a half of professional baseball at that point. I guess I’m worried that if something similar happens to Heredia that the Pirates organization may balk in the future at paying out big bonuses to such young players.
Of course, Ynoa’s still incredibly young and still has a ton of potential and so things may work out just fine for him and the A’s in the long run. His case and early-career injuries are something worth considering for the Pirates, but Ynoa’s just one guy and the Pirates have to trust their staff to bring Heredia along correctly and he’s obviously massively talented as well, etc. etc. and so the bottom line here is that the Pirates are bringing more elite talent into their system and that’s what they need to do at whatever the price.
The other reason this is good to see is that it comes in the wake of the last year’s Miguel Sano fiasco (Note: this is technically a little different than the Sano situation since they were negotiating with Veracruz and not Heredia and his agent directly). I’m still not entirely certain where the blame ultimately rests for that (on one hand, it was clear that Sano’s agent was making things difficult for the Pirates and that probably hurt their chances to sign him, but on the other hand it seems clear that something happened on the Pirates’ end to weaken their hand, whether it was Huntington not taking Plummer’s claims of other bidders seriously, someone balking at an extremely high opening bid, or what, I’m not sure), but the bottom line is that once the Pirates identify a player as an elite talent, nothing should stop them from getting that player into the system. They’ve been doing that in the draft, and now they’ve got a big-name international prospect to hang their hats on. Ultimately, it’s impossible not to think that’s a good thing.
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