Buster Olney reports that the Red Sox violated MLB’s international signing system, and are being severely punished. They will not be allowed to sign players during the new signing period, and:
Because of the violations, the contracts of players involved in the situation have been voided, including outfielders Simon Muzziotti, Albert Guaimaro, pitcher Cesar Gonzalez, and infielder Antonio Pinero.
Wow.
I still think that everyone should be an unrestricted free agent all the time. The more rules MLB passes, the more teams will try to game the system. The Boston front office was trying to be clever, I’ll bet, and now they’ve created a mess. Let the teams and players decide what can be spent, not some competitive balance rules.
Update: I wonder if this is why Dave Dombrowski move was made, and if Ben Cherington stepping down was really a firing?
Update: Here’s more on what happened:
Boston was limited last year to spending a maximum of $300,000 on international prospects after exceeding its spending limit the year before by spending $62 million on Cuban prospect Yoan Moncada. The Red Sox skirted the $300,000 threshold by packaging highly regarded prospects with lesser ones, paying both similarly and allowing the players’ agent to give the lion’s share of the money to the better prospect, according to the source.
Sounds like something a lot of teams would be doing. After all, the only one who really knows, because he is redistributing the money the players actually receive, is the players agent.
The players agent may or may not squeal, especially if offered something (say no lifetime ban as an agent),but unless the Red Sox were stupid enough to put something in writing, its just his word vs the Red Sox.
Maybe the lack of quality of the lesser players made it so obvious, but that’s not really hard evidence. Of course, maybe MLB does not need hard evidence.
I’d love to know the evidence the MLB has used here.
Its also interesting to note the Red Sox voted against Manfred as commissioner, which forced a 2nd ballot. Payback?