Braves News: Braves sign impressive international class, uniforms, more
There was no shortage of intrigue yesterday as international free agency opened up and the Atlanta Braves were right in the thick of the madness. Starting off the day, multiple outlets confirmed everyone’s “suspicions” that the Braves were going to sign talented Venezuelan outfielder Luis Guanipa. The Braves ended up signing him for a reported $2.5 million which seems perfectly reasonably for the potential upside here.
After that, the Braves spread the rest of money in their international bonus pool around and grabbed a number of intriguing young amateurs. So far, the Braves’ class has a fairly even split between pitching and position players, although the bulk of the actual dollars has gone on the position player side. This is probably wise given the state of the Braves’ farm system right now which really needs an infusion of talent.
More Braves News
If you love Braves history and/or talk about uniforms, Mitchell had you covered yesterday with his deep dive into how the Braves’ uniforms have changed over time since 1966. We have really leaned into the history content here of late and this was a delightful deep dive into a topic that a lot of people have very strongly feelings about.
Also, in the spirit of the opening of international free agency, we took a look at the top 5 international free agent signings the Braves have made since 2013. While the names will look familiar to Braves fans, it is worth noting that several of these names were not high dollar signings, in particular the top three spots on the list.
MLB News
It wasn’t just the Braves signing guys yesterday as the the entire league went wild with international signings. To see who signed who and which international players cashed in the most, MLB.com put together a really helpful tracker of the top international bonuses in the class. There are still some talented guys who haven’t been reported as locked up yet, so it will be interesting to see where they end up.
Say what you want about the Padres, but they always keep things interesting. Shohei Ohtani seems poised to become a free agent next offseason barring an extension. If he hits the market, it sure sounds like the Padres are going to be very keen to try to make Ohtani the next high profile contract they dole out.