The Phillies designated Ricardo Pinto for assignment over the weekend when they signed Scott Kingery to a major league deal and brought him to the majors. On Wednesday they traded Pinto to the White Sox for international bonus pool money. Unlike the trade that send Eliezer Alvarez to Texas for cash, the Phillies actually received something of value back for Pinto. Pinto is probably a better player than Alvarez in the modern major league baseball game.
The Phillies added Pinto to the 40 man roster last offseason when he was still a starting pitcher. After a few starts in AAA the Phillies moved him to the bullpen. On the surface, Pinto’s stuff should play well in the bullpen. He sits in the mid 90s and touched up to 97-99 with his fastball. He has a very good changeup, but his breaking ball is a problem. Pinto can throw the ball in the strike zone, but over the past few years he has been unable to build the command to locate his pitches. He also has not been able to miss bats since Lakewood. However, Pinto has very little time in the bullpen, and there is a strong possibility that he can become a usable major league pitcher. For the Phillies, he was behind their mess of starting pitchers as well as Yacksel Rios, Seranthony Dominguez, and Zac Curtis for the bullpen (as well as Victor Arano, Jake Thompson, and Drew Hutchison who all started in the majors due to injury). In the end the Phillies decided they would rather have Pedro Florimon on the major league roster than have Pinto, but he was also probably the next guy gone if there was another move.
As for the international money, we don’t know the exact amount (or at least I haven’t seen one), but per the rules of the CBA, the amount is at least $250,000. This brings the Phillies bonus pool for the 2017-2018 signing period to at least $7.25M. Given where we are in the signing period and the amount the Phillies have spent (at least $6M with many bonuses unreported), there is no major target the Phillies are looking to use this money on. That said, the Phillies have two GCL teams and two DSL teams, and they are going to sign a bunch of guys for cheap to fill those teams and to see which ones of them they can develop. I do want to note that this money must be spent before the middle of June and does not affect their 2018-2019 signing period which is decreased by $1M because of the Arrieta and Santana signings. The Phillies have the lowest international bonus pool for the 2018-2019 signing period.
Do you have any idea whom the Phillies plan to spend these $ on?
By this point in the season, all the best prospects, and even the second best ones, are long gone. As Matt says, that $250k likely represents a couple dozen four-figure type bonuses.