Like all of Major League Baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies will have their first opportunity to sign foreign free agents on January 15.
Using $3 million of their $4.4 million bonus pool from the previous season, Philadelphia signed Jesus Caba, an international prospect ranked No. 13 at shortstop. Caba had a great glove and was a switch-hitter.
This season, who will the Phillies sign? Baseball America, however, unveiled their Top 50 bonus board. The purpose of the board was to decide who would receive the 50 biggest signing bonuses worldwide. The players and the teams most likely to sign them were then matched by the website.
Jalvin Arias, an outfielder from the Dominican Republic, was anticipated to sign with the Phillies for the 29th-largest signing bonus.
For the Phillies, this would be a long-term development choice because Arias now looks like a center fielder with the potential to develop into a power hitter, which might eventually shift him into a corner outfield position.
Arias, who was born in 2006, would have plenty time to mature and fill out his 6-foot-4, 205-pound physique.
The Phillies have a stellar core of future prospects that were named to MLB.com’s Organizational All-Stars last month, which gives them a competitive advantage as they enter the foreign market.
Reliever Orion Kerkering was on that list. He pitched for the Phillies in the postseason, helping them get to the NL Championship Series before losing to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Along with right-hand pitcher Mick Abel, first baseman Carlos De La Cruz, outfielders SÃmon Muzziotti and Emaarion Boyd, catcher Caleb Ricketts, second baseman Oliver Dunn, third baseman Matt Kroon, and left-handed pitcher Matt Osterberg, the other players on the All-Star team were outfielders Weston Wilson and Justin Crawford.