Atlanta Braves Morning Chop – International Gold
Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Julio Teheran (49) throws during spring training workouts at Champion Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
2015-16 MLB International Bonus Pools
BEN BADLER / BASEBALL AMERICA.COM
Teams have received their international bonus pools for the upcoming 2015-16 signing period, which begins on July 2. The pools are up slightly from a year ago, with the top pool getting an extra $378,500 and the bottom pool getting an additional $102,300.
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The bonus pools are determined based on reverse order of winning percentage from the 2014 major league season, which means the Diamondbacks have the largest bonus pool, while the Angels have the smallest. However, the Diamondbacks will be unable to sign any pool-eligible player for more than $300,000 during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 signing periods as a penalty for going more than 15 percent over their current 2014-15 pool, mainly
to sign Cuban righthander Yoan Lopez
.
The Angels, Rays, Red Sox and Yankees will also be unable to sign any pool-eligible players for more than $300,000 during the 2015-16 signing period. They do still keep their entire bonus pool, however, and are free to trade the individual slot values that comprise their pool.
- (1) DBACKS – $5,393,900
- (15) BRAVES – $2,458,400
- (30) ANGELS – $1,968,600
[ Ed note: implications? Several:
- We’ve already seen the Braves make a big splash, albeit belated, in the 2014-15 international market. We’ll review that on the next page.
- The Braves were not only aggressive this off-season internationally in their own right (which included beefing up their international scouting), they used other teams’ woes to their advantage. Atlanta nabbed 3 bonus pool slots from the Cubs in the Tommy La Stella trade.
- You may continue to see aggressive moves to obtain international slot monies – particularly with the teams noted above that can’t spend their pools thanks to penalties. Especially hard hit are the Diamondbacks, who stupidly wasted their #1 position to obtain Yasmany Tomas in an ultimate ‘mortgaging the future’ move.
]