MLB brings the hammer down on the Braves.

Following an investigation that cost general manager John Coppolella and scout Gordon Blakeley their jobs and led indirectly to the resignation of president of baseball operations John Hart, MLB determined the Braves had broken rules – the most severe of which was the packaging of signing bonuses – in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 international signing periods. Nine players from the Braves’ 2016-17 signing class, the majority of whom received bonuses in excess of $1 million, will be declared free agents, as will three players from the most recent class. Atlanta also will lose a draft pick next June for trying to induce a player this year with off-the-books perks, sources told Yahoo Sports.

The biggest name is the 17-year-old Maitan, a switch-hitting shortstop from Venezuela who signed for $4.25 million and was one of the most highly touted prospects from Latin America in the last decade. He will be eligible to sign with the 29 other teams, who will be able to use leftover money from the current international signing period or dip into their 2018-19 bonus pools to sign the ex-Braves, a source familiar with the penalties said. Each of the players will be forced to use an agent different than the buscon, or trainer, who negotiated the original deals.

Atlanta, limited to spending a maximum of $300,000 for a player in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 signing periods, will face severe penalties in the two periods thereafter, according to sources. In 2019-20, Atlanta will be restricted from spending more than $10,000 per player – and will be banned from signing Robert Puason, the 14-year-old shortstop from the Dominican Republic with whom the Braves had struck a deal deemed illegal because of his age. Come 2020-21, the Braves will lose half their signing-bonus pool, which is expected to be $4.75 million.

I don’t remember problems like this when teams were allowed to treat international players as free agents and could sign them for what the market would bear. The rules were put in place because some teams were spending “Too Much Money” (TM). So now teams are trying to circumvent the rules and getting in trouble. Maybe MLB should rethink these restrictions and let teams spend what they want. The current rules are creating criminals.