MLB drops hammer on Atlanta Braves John Coppolella banned
By Fred Owens
Atlanta Braves conspire with a really corrupt buscone.
If you thought things couldn’t worse, how about conspiring to guarantee the signature of a player two years before he’s eligible top be contacted? More bad news from the statement follows.
"“. . (the Braves) agreed to sign six players to inflated signing bonuses . . .(in a deal with) Robert Puason’s agent . . . (so he would guarantee) Puason . . .(signing with the Braves) on 2019-20. . ."
Puason is the 14-year-old prospect mentioned in stories about the violations when news first broke.
"““. . .offered prospect Ji-Hwan Bae extra-contractual compensation. . . .(as a result the Braves are banned) from signing Robert Puason . . . the contract between Bae and the Braves (is not approved.)"
The Braves proudly paraded Bae before the home crowd at the end of the season. The investigation was underway at that point and the Commissioner sat on the contract knowing it might be poison fruit as well.
"“. . . additional sanctions are warranted. . .for the violations committed by its employees. . . the Braves will be prohibited from signing any international player for more than $10,000 during the 2019-20 signing period. . . the first signing period. . .the Braves are not subject to any signing restrictions under our rules; and the Braves’ international signing bonus pool for the 2020-21 signing period will be reduced by 50 percent."
Pretty straight forward. Puason will never be a Brave and Bae goes back to Korea. The Braves are already prohibited from signing players in the 2018-19 round and can’t pay more that $10K as a signing bonus in the next. Effectively restricting them from signing a good prospect in the 19-20 round. The 20-21 bonus pool will now be half of whatever that amount would have been; they’ll calculate then divide by two to get the final amount.
"“. . .the Braves offered impermissible benefits, which were never provided, to a player they selected in the First-Year Player Draft in an attempt to convince him to sign for a lower bonus. As a penalty for the Club’s attempted circumvention involving a draft selection, the Braves will forfeit their third-round selection in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft.”"
This is MLB being petty. It refers to a reported offer of a car to Drew Waters if he took a lower bonus. No one in the room felt the offer was anything but a joke however, like say bomb in an airport the braves must pay the consequences.