The Nationals Latin American Presence

Surprisingly, during the Aroldis Chapman sweepstakes the Nationals made a legitimate offer given their absence in the Latin America market since the Smiley Gonzalez scandal.  Besides the player formerly known as Smily (aka Carlos Alvarez), the Nationals have not had a major signing in Latin America.  Out of the few low key signings they have made, the only notable names are Jhonathan Solano, Marcos Frias, and Eury Perez.  More teams, like Houston and Minnesota, are recognizing the importance of the Latin markets and are refocusing their efforts in those areas, specifically the Dominican Republic.  The Nationals, who have placed an importance on developing their farm system, will also need to expand their efforts if they want to be able to eventually compete with the top tier teams.  The first signs are encouraging.

This October the Nationals hired former Red Sox Latin America head Johnny DiPuglia to head their own international scouting efforts.  Last August, before the DiPuglia hire, the Nationals made five low key signings in the Dominican.  These five players were:  IF Jean Valdez (16), OF Jose Noberto (18), RHP Cleto Brazoban (17), RHP Videl Paredes (18), and George Rosa (19).  The five were scouted by both Dana Brown, now with the Blue Jays, and former Royals scouting director Derek Ladnier.  The pick of the litter is Valdez and here is what Baseball America and The Nationals had to say about him:



Baseball America:

Ability to hit for power, though scouts say his swing gets long and he has trouble translating that power into game situations. He has a strong arm, though he’s a below-average runner and will probably move to third base or the outfield.

Nationals:

He is an exceptional hitter who projects as a potential middle-of-the-order bat with power and plate discipline. 

His signing was between $350-$450 thousand, while the other signings were around the $100 thousand mark.  This means that the Nationals spent about $1 million dollars on Latin American prospects in the last year.  Admittedly, if you are going to limit your international signing budget to such a low number, it is a prudent move to go for the group of prospects rather than a single signing (Alvarez costed the Nationals $1.4 million), especially if your organization just got burned by that single prospect.  And then there is the costs the Nationals are placing in building their new complex in the Dominican, along with the cost of putting in place a new professional staff.

Besides their pursuit of Chapman and the five signings in the Dominican, the Nationals also pursued Wagner Mateo, a projected five tools center fielder.  The Nationals lost out to the Cardinals, who gave Mateo a $3.1 million deal, but St. Louis later voided the deal when the 16 year old failed his physicals because of two previously undisclosed injuries.  The Nationals made the right decision in this situation, but Mateo is back on the market and they may be able to make a run at him for a much smaller monetary amount.  Chapman was not the only Cuban defector the Nationals missed out on either, they were non-factors in the signings of Jose Iglesias, Adeiny Hechevarria, and Noel Arguelles.  Again, the Nationals may have made the prudent choice at this time as these players all got $6+ million, but as ESPN Jose Arangure points out, the cost of Cuban prospects has increased greatly from a year ago and will likely continue to grow.

The Nationals were drenched in the Smiley scandal a year ago.  365 days later, they have refocused their energies in Latin America and appear to doing things right.  The moves they have made thus far have been prudent, but smart.  They are a great first step, but it can not stop here.  The Nationals must now reposition themselves in the market and begin to pursue bigger Latin targets.  The time where they can be sign almost any Latin star may be coming to an end with the CBA running out next year and the possibility of adding international stars to the draft.  If the Nationals are truly committed to building their farm system, then I would expect to see them become very active in the Caribbean this year (and possibly in East Asia).  Mike Rizzo seems to have the right philosophy in regards to the subject and so I leave you with this encouraging statement by Rizzo:

To be a front-line organization you have to consider the international market. That's a big piece of your developmental system. You have to be active in that market. You have to sign players from that market, because the statistics say that almost a third of your players are coming from outside of the domestic draft. So you'd better be active in it. You'd better have the training facility. You have to be in that part of the game to have complete success.