2
2012
Mets Sign Dominican Shortstop For $1.75 Million As International Free Agency Begins
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BONUS BABY: Germán Ahmed Rosario gets record $1.75 million to sign with the Mets as day one of International Free Agency period begins.
The Mets announced that they have signed Dominican SS Germán Ahmed Rosario during the first day of the International Free Agent signing period.
Rosario will get a $1.75 million signing bonus, the highest bonus the Mets have ever paid an International Free Agent, topping the $1.3 million the Mets paid Fernando Martinez in 2005.
Baseball America ranked Rosario eleventh among the top international free agents available and had the following to say in their scouting report (subscription required):
Rosario might be the most divisive player in Latin America. He has a long, lanky build, good bat speed and raw power in batting practice along with average speed. Some scouts who like Rosario enough to have him ranked as the top prospect in the Dominican Republic, seeing him as a true shortstop who with power who can hit in games. He showed that at the MLB showcase in February in games against Venezuela, going 4-for-7 with a double, a walk and no strikeouts. Supporters like his fielding instincts, hands, arm strength and ability to make the barehanded play.
Other scouts see an upright hitter with a leg kick that gets him out on his front foot against offspeed stuff and leads to strikeouts with his uppercut stroke. His body has a lot of room to fill out, so he may end up at third base, but some scouts aren’t sold on his infield actions and see him as a corner outfielder.
The Mets also agreed to contracts with Dominican second baseman Franklin Correa and Venezuelan shortstop Miguel Patino, both 16 year olds
All three will report to the organization’s Dominican Complex.
Mets VP Paul DePodesta was very high on Rosario calling him an “extremely athletic,very instinctual and highly intelligent” shortstop.”
“He has the chance to impact the game offensively, defensively and off the field,” DePodesta said in a statement.
One thing this front office hasn’t been afraid to do is spend on International amateur talent in the last two seasons.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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Boy these signing bonuses just pop up out of nowhere.
This front office has money to make moves to bolster the roster now so who are they kidding?
Teams have different budgets. I get that you don’t care to know that, but teams set aside finances to IFA’s compared to big league budget compared to minor league, and amateur draft etc.
and we get anyone who questions your hero will be immediatly responded to by you and an attempt at calling them know nothing crazy NOT Fans will be the majority of the content contained in that response!
Lets see I wonder how many middle infield and Bull pen guys have been signed by these guys since they got here and what proportion of signing played MI or BP….
I would bet way more than 70% of the signings this team has made are all MI or BP!
Metsie — What’s your point regarding your Paragraphs 2-3? It’s not like you to beat around the bush.
Well my point is we are buying an awful lot of MI and BP with little to show for it.
They gave this guy a lot of Bucks and I do hope he is worth it but With all the focus on MI and BP when will we actually see some results?
How old is Rosario?
Ah, I see, also a 16-year-old. Don’t worry, I’ll just keep answering my own questions. Seems to work best.
LOL He is from the DR…If he was from Cuba we would have no clue how old he really is!
It’s hard to get excited about a kid that’s probably at least six or seven years away but I guess it’s good that they’re committing to signing up the middle talent. You keep signing top talent like this year in and year out and eventually you’ll hit it big. But for now…we’ll welcome the young man aboard and hope for the best.
Its doubly difficult to get excited about a young, talented SS from the DR when we know, WE KNOW, that when he reaches his prime, becomes the best SS in baseball and wins the 2nd batting title in NY Met history, we’ll let him walk without just compensation.
Tommy2cat — Jose is good, very good, terrific, no doubt. But when you imply he’s better than Tulo, you’ve got to be kidding.
Nice….
Many International FA signings so far this week. I’ll be interesting to see which ones pan out. Hope this SS does.
Wonder if this will be the Mets only IFA signing this year?
they signed a couple other guys yesterday too, just not as “big name” as this guy. both MI I think.
Thanks. I missed those signings. Was reading on MLBTR about this Rosario signing.
16 years old? 1.75 Million? So a 16 year old kid in the Dominican Republic who yesterday needed to be careful not to trip over the chickens while running out of the shack to use the outhouse now has a bank account with $1.75 million dollars? How much of the $1.75 does this kid see? Not much I am thinking. What a racket someone is getting very very rich off these young latin players!
Look at it this way. People are paying for the facility that he plays in, the coaches/trainers/staff, advertisement of these players. Hell the acadamy that the kid is in setup their own facebook page to advertise them and of course their services:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/JC-Academy-Baseball-RD/171544516290644
That all has to get paid for. What does Amed get? Probably the opportunity to not “trip over chickens” anymore like you suggested. I imagine he will probably get less than what he deserves and there is tons of corruption in this system, but now the kid has a opportunity to do something that many do not.
I believe “Alex68″ lives in the DR, I would love to get his take on these type of academy’s and how they affect his country.
LLMF i don’t live in DR… Was born there, and play there for a good part of my youth… With that being said now they are way more strict belive it or not with the buscones, buscones were the persons in charge of doing the wrong doings of some of this players in order to get paid, back then it was very popular to get a kid who was 18 or 19 and do a false birth certificate in order to have teams sign those players, guys like tejada, furcal and others were olders than what they said they were, part of the reason was that.. But i’ll say since 2000 and up things have gotten very strict out there, now even agents from the USA have offices etc in DR in charge of this players, they have orientation classes etc, it’s pretty clean how they are doing things now, HOWEVER, there’s still some buscones out there doing their thing you know, but they are being way more cautios because it’s a criminal charge if you’re caught on some bogus scheme trying to lie to get players sign…
$1.75 million seems like a lot to hand over to a 16 year old…mainly because it is.
But, there are a lot of hands in the wallet. Also, I’ve heard teams are getting around the cap on IFAs but cutting one guy a giant check, and then other players represented by the same agent/buscon/academy that would each get high bonuses all sign for less.
The team essentially gets a bulk rate.
I wonder if we look at the other guys the Mets sign, will we see a few common threads.
FMart got a 1.4 million signing bonus and that worked out great. Oh wait a minute…
It was a good signing. The development can be criticized, but actually getting him into the org was a good thing. The problem was, there wasn’t enough follow through.
Also, the kid has the natural talents that you can’t teach. A batting stance can be fixed. Power, o nthe other hand, you either have or you don’t.
I wonder what the San Diego Padres Sr. VP of Baseball Operations has been doing on this front. Nobody does it better than Omar.