Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 05, 2008
Signing Scoop

Congratulations to the Reds who realized they could sign a sixteen year old Dominican star without waiting for the official signing period to start. Juan Duran is already 6 feet 6 inches and 190 pounds, and is being compared to Juan Gonzalez and Vlad Guerrero. Here's the loophole they exploited:

Players who are 16 years old are eligible to sign with major league teams during the international signing period, which lasts from July 2 to Aug. 31. Players who turn 16 years old during the international signing period are eligible to sign with teams on their birthdays.

Duran's birthday is Sept. 2, 1991, making him a 16-year-old who seemed to have barely missed the cutoff point to sign during last year's international signing period, and it appeared he would have to wait until the commencement of the 2008 period to sign. However, the rules state that for an international player to be eligible to sign, he must be 16 years old at the time of the signing and turn 17 years old by either Sept. 1 or by the end of his first professional season.


Players signed during the international signing period are not eligible to play that same year, so their first professional season comes the following calendar year. For example, a player signed during the 2007 international signing period would have his first professional season be the 2008 season.

The Reds realized that they could sign Duran if they assigned him to their 2008 roster in Billings in the Rookie-level Pioneer League, where the regular season ends on Sept. 5. Since Duran will turn 17 before the end of the 2008 Pioneer League season, he was eligible to sign before the 2008 international signing period and was eligible to sign back on his birthday last year.

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Posted by David Pinto at 12:32 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

They sign Corey Patterson and Jerry Hairston Jr. and then turn around and do something clever like this.
I don't know if I will ever understand the Reds management.

Posted by: Andrew at March 5, 2008 02:10 PM
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