Atlanta Braves: Tracking the Braves’ international free agent signees

Today is the official opening day of international free agency and the Atlanta Braves have so far been pretty busy. Coming into the day, the only widely known information regarding the Braves was that they were favored to sign Luis Guanipa out of Venezuela, a highly ranked outfielder with some exciting tools. That did, in fact, come to fruition as Guanipa agreed to a deal with Atlanta as the signing period opened up for $2.5 million.

Below you will find the rest of the Braves’ signees as we get the information. If you need a quick primer on how international free agency work, here is a write-up from a couple of days ago. A couple of other great resources here are MLB Pipeline’s bonus tracker for their top 50 international prospects as well as Baseball America’s signing tracker.

Other than Guanipa, the Braves added outfielder Carlos Monteverde who is also from Venezuela for $700,000. The Braves have been active in Venezuela for quite some time on the international scene.

The Braves also signed shortstop Carlos Cordero for $200,000. He trained at the Melquis Torres Academy. It sure looks like the team is at least trying to bolster their position players in the minor leagues.

Adding to their position player haul from this class so far, it appears that the Braves have also signed outfielder John Estevez out of the Dominican Republic. His bonus amount unknown as of now.

The Braves did add some pitching in this class as they signed righty Whilmer Guerra out of the Dominican Republic.

We respect the bow tie game here as another signing from the Braves’ IFA class, RHP Luis Arestigueta out of Venezuela, pulled off the rare bowtie plus jersey look well.

The later signees from today’s class for the Braves seemed to be centered on pitching as they also signed righthanders Cristobal Abreu and Enderson Garcia out of the Dominican Republic.

The Braves ultimately released a list of all of the guys they signed on Sunday. While the class does look pitcher heavy, the majority of the dollars spent did end up going to position players this year.