Yorman Rodriguez: Seeing Red?
Posted by erik in July 2 intn'l signing period, Yorman RodriguezLast Saturday night I mentioned a rumor about the Giants signing Dominican RF Rafael Rodriguez for a $2.55 M signing bonus. It turns out that was true, which makes me feel a little better about what I had been hearing. A little later after that, over at Saberscouting there was a poster by the name of Carlos Sanchez who said a Rodriguez had agreed to sign with the Cardinals for $3.3 M. Assuming he was referring to Rafael Rodriguez, I mentioned it in that post in the name fun and rumors. Here’s where things get a little interesting. It turns out that he was referring to the one month younger Rodriguez, the highly coveted Yorman.
Now I’ll say this: If Carlos Sanchez is the same poster who was previously going by Carlos, I would tend to lean towards believing this guy is pretty connected and knows his stuff based on his prior comments. He, amongst others, nailed the connection of the Cardinals and Roberto Pina.
Yorman can’t officially sign with any team until he turns 16 next month. Most teams expect him to break the signing bonus record of any Venezuelan player. The record holder is Miguel Cabrera, who signed for $1.9 M. It’s been long believed that Rodriguez had already agreed to sign with Cincinnati.
Last week Derrick Goold blogged that Jeff Luhnow was still chasing after Yorman, and that Luhnow believed the Cards still had a chance, and they were willing to go over the record under the right circumstances. Our homeslice Picklefork had mentioned our rumors and the rumors floating around at Saberscouting at Bernie’s Pressbox, and Bernie said:
Luhnow has been working that signing hard for a long time… he made great inroads with the family, the coaches, etc.
Baseball America has stated that Yorman’s power and speed tool both grade out as 70′s on the 20-80 scale according to most scouts, and he’s been compared to everyone from Miggy Cabrera, for his bloodlines and power, to Eric Davis and Carlos Beltran, for his power/speed combo. That’s on the wildly optimistic side, others have stated concerns that he’s really more of a 5′o clock hitter and think his hit tool is pretty questionable. But if the Cardinals are willing to commit that much $ to him, I’m sure they’ve done their homework thoroughly.
If the Cardinals do sign him for the aforementioned $3.3M, that would not only be the biggest signing bonus given to a Venezuelan player ever, that would be the biggest signing bonus the Cardinals have given any player – ever. The 2nd highest would then be JD Drew at $3 M. Wow. And that would be on top of the Cardinals already commiting $1.1 (or $1.2, I can’t remember) to Roberto Pina and over $500 K each on Franco and Valera. Wow again. To top it off, this would be Luhnow signing away a player that the Walt Jocketty-led Reds have been believed to have in the bag. Triple wow and “zing!” for Luhnow.
Time will tell if these rumors prove true or not, but it’s pretty intriguing to me. I know Yorman’s birthday is in August, but does anyone know the exact date? We may need to start a countdown here at the blog.
UPDATE: I’m being told now that someone with the Cardinals flat out denied this alleged deal in place and stated the Cards are not interested in that spending that kind of money. Bummer.
Entries (RSS)
Wow, this would be quite the coup.
Looking forward to following all of these guys on this here site for years (8?) to come.
I’m trying not to get my hopes to high for this, but you can’t help but get a little excited.
By the way, this is what the poster “Franvene” at saberscouting said, “Yorman Rodriguez can be signed on August 15th when he turns 16.” But as you know you have to take everything with a grain a salt.
I guess he’ll be seeing red no matter what – in St. Louis or Cincinnati.
What’s a 5 o’clock hitter?
A 5 o’clock hitter is someone who looks really good in batting practice but has trouble hitting in real game situations.
Does it surprise anyone else that the Cardinals would be willing to give 3.3 million to 15-16 year old Yorman Rodriguez and were unwilling to select and pay 18 year old Tim Melville 1.5-2 million?
Tells me one and/or two things: One) Yorman Rodriguez is a stud and 2) Tim Melville just ain’t that good.
But really you could replace Melville with Daniel Webb, Nick Maronde, Issac Galloway etc. I guess Yorman is simply one heckuva talent. Hopefully we see Yo-Rod in Cardinal and not Cincy red this fall but like Shhh said, lets not get too excited.
UB, galloway only got like $200,000 to sign. it definitely wasn’t a money situation that caused him to fall.
The rumor might not be true, but they are obviously going hard after him. I wonder if the kid they signed from Yorman’s team is one of his better friends? I have seen package deals before, probably reading too much into it….but when your 15/16, you sometimes make choices for some odd reasons.
The Cards are of course going to deny the rumor, even if true they dont want that getting out b/c they cant officially sign him, its probably illegal to have a contract in place and it gives competiting teams a solid number to meet or exceed.
I still have high hopes he gets signed….just the fact the Cards are in it this much is a great sign for the future.
Sincerely, Homeslice!
Few, scouts may have mis-gauged Galloway’s desire to play for USC(was it). I remember the same thing happend with Tommy Pham. Most seemed to think he was headed to CSF for sure but he signed for like 3rd round money and then made a comment saying scouts were wrong about his interest in playing pro ball right away.
Personally, I was never a huge fan of Galloway so I’m not mad or anything. He seemed like he was as advanced as some of these 16 year olds coming out of the DR and Venezuela so maybe scouts were extremely concerned about his ability to put it all together.
The Cards strongly denied having an understanding with Ryde Rodriguez, after Ryde himself was quoted having a deal with the Cards by a reporter in Nicaragua. Months later, however, Ryde was revealed to have signed.
So any denials by the Cardinals have zippo credibility. The stakes are high and the team has to obfuscate. There cannot be a deal signed until the 16th birthday, therefore one cannot officially exist, by definition.
And on August 15th, who knows what will happen? Three teams could be rudely surprised. The Yanks thought they had a deal with Inoa, but found out they did not. Ultimately its up to the kid and his family, and he has not had to make the irrevocable decision yet. For now, nothing is certain.
As to the 5 oclock hitter stuff, any 15 year old kid has a lot to learn. But this one must be one super-stud, with speed and power to spare. Luhnow would make sure Yorman learns how to play. The big uncertainty would be signing him, teaching him is trivial in comparison. The Cards would have plenty of years to train him.
BTW the .com site is NOT redirecting.
The Cards and Rodriguez have nothing to gain by saying that they have stuck a deal with each other. Rodriguez could get more money out of the Cards or another team. The Cards don’t need to announce it, if they’ve got a deal in place.
rodriguez has something to gain. he doesn’t have to sign with the cardinals, and if he says what the dollar amount is that just gives the other teams the target they have to beat.
How soon will we see the guys we have signed start playing in our system? Do the play in leagues in Vene and the DR before coming to the US when they turn 18? How does this all work out?
The recently signed prospects can’t play in the Cardinals system until next year. Some will go to Florida for the instructional league this fall and then most of them will be assigned to either the VSL or DSL team next year out of spring training. Maybe two or three will get to start with the GCL team. Of the 2007 international signees, only Kevin Moscatel and Ryde Rodriguez are playing for the GCL Cardinals this year and Rodriguez is 19.
Roberto Pina sounds like he could be able to start next season at the GCL level but most of the newest Cardinals will begin their careers in the VSL or DSL.
Any recent news on Yorman Rodriquez , Reds or Cards?