Because he isn’t 25 yet, he can’t sign a major league deal(like Ohtani with the Angels), just a minor league one with an international signing bonus. It would be a surprise if he didn’t sign with the Dodgers.
Since he won’t be signing an MLB FA deal, an obvious destination is a place that has an unparalleled record developing pitchers to help him overcome the adjustments his league made to him in his second year. Two years with the Astros then he makes absolute bank in the real FA market.
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How much international money would the Dodgers theoretically have? That’s a line you can’t go over, right?
Whoever he signs with gets him for 6 years. The Astros would probably be the best team for him to sign with developmentally, but theres been a ton of reporting of him and Yamamoto being really close.
The Dodgers have the most available, I think they have been saving it for him. There is some question about if he will be counted as a 2024 IFA or 2025. If he was classified as 2025 then every team would be mostly on an even playing field money wise, small market teams get like an extra million I think.
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The fact this can be written without irony given the Ohtani deal is hilarious.
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I missed the “…and play part”, so I was thinking next year. I also don’t know the dates of the Intl Signing Period. Hell, I don’t even know when Daylight Savings Time is.
Fucking Dodgers.
Thanks. I don’t know why I thought it was only thru the age 25 year.
I guess it’s all gonna depend on when he is posted, my guess is he’ll be posted after Dec 15 because then his current team would get a bit more money from the deal after the bonus pools reset.
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Ok so I did some digging around and found the numbers. The Dodgers have 2.5M left in the 24 period.
They would have the least, 5.1 tied with Giants, if Sasaki ends up as part of the 25 class. Astros would have 5.6, tied for 3rd least with the Cardinals.
These numbers do not include trades that involved bonus money. I’m not sure if you can trade future bonus money or if it’s just current period money can be traded
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In the Astros brain trust I trust…. If everyone is dazzled by the (legitimate) shiny bauble over there, they can continue to nab exceptional talent from Cuba, Venezuela, etc…
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Thanks for the research
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Altuve won the Silver Slugger.
He had another very nice year in a remarkable career.
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Most SS’s of any AL 2B, tied for most in history for 2B
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Did you know who he’s tied with?
Ryne Sandberg if I remember correctly
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I guessed Alomar or Sandberg before I looked it up
The other day I compared Altuve’s stats with Sandberg’s first 14 years of his career and it was striking how similar they were:
ETA: The WAR difference is mostly defensive (JA DWAR -2.5, RS DWAR 11.3) I wonder how DWAR was impacted by the shift and Altuve playing short right field so much during a significant portion of his career?
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Probably helped him if anything. The defensive metrics value range above all else and Altuves range has always been a bit limited because of his size
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