On July 2 the International signing period opens for players over the age of 16, those turning 16 over the next few months while become eligible as they turn 16. Over the past 3 signing periods the Phillies have spent a lot of their budgets on Carlos Tocci, Jiandido Tromp, Deivi Grullon, Jose Pujols, Luis Encarnacion, and Bryan Martelo.
Bonus Pool:
The international spending pool is broken up into a base bonus pool, and then slots corresponding to the previous season’s results. You may trade slots up to have of your total pool. The Phillies have shown no interest in either trading for slots or trading their slots. The Phillies have spent their entire pool the last three seasons and their 2014-2015 total pool is $3,221,800. All signings over $10,000 will count against the pool, this is different then previous years where each team had 6 signings under $50,000 that did not count against the cap.
Player Preview:
Ben Badler of Baseball America does an incredible job previewing the J2 deadline and he released his top 30 prospects today. He has had the Phillies linked to the following players.
Arquimedes Gamboa: Gamboa is a switch hitting shortstop. Scouts think he will be a plus defender, but they are divided as to how well he will hit, but some really like his left handed swing and he could hit as many as 10 HRs a year. Unlike most top players on the market Gamboa will likely command less that $1,000,000, making him potentially one of the best bargains on the market.
Daniel Brito: Another Venezuelan shortstop, scouts think that Brito likely has to move to second base or center field in the future. Brito has a contact oriented line drive lefty swing. He just project for a ton of power, but scouts like the bat to ball ability. Brito will cost less than $1,000,000 and closer to the $500,000 range.
Lenin Rodriguez: An offensive oriented catcher Rodriguez doesn’t have a ton of projection left, but he has one of the best bats behind the plate in this signing period. He will needs some work behind the plate. Rodriguez will likely sign for less than $1,000,000, but he won’t be cheap.
The Phillies made not sign all players, and they may sign other players. I would not expect them to not incur any penalties like a couple of bonus busting teams are doing this year. The Phillies have had a lot of success in Latin America recently, and I expect it to continue this July.