Archive for the “Wagner Mateo” Category

Per Ben Badler at Baseball America

The biggest signing splash of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2012 international signing pool has had his contract officially invalidated and has been hit with a one year ban from signing a contract with a major league team.

Read the rest of this entry »

There was much hand wringing when the Cardinals voided Mateo’s contract in September. Half a year later and he’s finally found a club in Arizona who signed him for $500k or one-sixth of his contract with the Cardinals.

It’s likely of little consolation to the Cardinals (after all it’s obvious they wanted to sign the kid) but this has to be viewed as a massive validation of their screening process. Mateo may go on to have a very successful career but the Cardinals (and 28 other teams) were scared off by what looks to be significant health issues in hindsight.

The Cardinals likely haven’t done any long term damage to their long term interests in Latin America. Cynical though it may sound, players from that part of the world are unlikely to turn down multi-million dollar contracts because of one isolated incident.  The Cardinals will still need to augment their farm system this draft season but I’d expect them to invest heavily in the draft and shy away from any seven figure Latin American signings.

Previous Wagner Mateo coverage can be found here.

In what is the most detailed article to date, Joe Strauss offers further insight into the ongoing saga of the Cardinals and Domincan prospect Wagner Mateo.  By and large this is an even-handed effort to publish some facts although Strauss is unable, as usual, to refrain from putting his own conotation into the article.  These subtle jabs often create a mischaracterization of the facts or at least color the perception of the reader.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Cardinals have voided the contract of Wagner Mateo over his vision issues.  The are voiding it over “pre-existing injuries and physical defects”.

Here is the info from Bernie’s Press box:

HOUSTON, TX, Sept. 22, 2009 – The St. Louis Cardinals announced today that they have terminated the contract of outfielder Wagner Mateo with whom they agreed to terms on July 2.

Mateo’s contract was contingent on a physical exam. Results of the physical exam discovered pre-existing injuries and physical defects that led to today’s decision by the club.

UPDATE: Makes you feel really bad for Wagner and re-emphasizes the risk involved in the Latin American market.  From Bernie’s twitter:

The kid Wagner Mateo apparently has a degenerative condition that will greatly impact his vision…pretty serious.

UPDATE 2: Here’s the update from Mateo’s side from Ben Badler’s twitter.  Truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Mateo’s camp says Mateo has 20/30 vision in his right eye but does not have a degenerative eye condition or nerve damage.

This is part of the reason I have such a hard time evaluating Latin American prospects.  It’s why I wasn’t high on Roberto de la Cruz last year as well.  These players simply aren’t vetted as well and the records in Latin America are not on the same plane as those for North American players.

Wagner Mateo — the 16-year-old outfielder who signed a $3.1 million bonus, the most ever given to an amateur Latin American position player — is having vision problems that may affect his contract status with the St. Louis Cardinals, according to several Latin American baseball sources.

I can’t get worked up on this one way or the other and we should let the Cardinals vet the situation because, frankly, we don’t know what’s going on.

(H/T: MLB Trade Rumors)

erik update: Per Jorge Aranguare of ESPN.com, Wagner’s agent says it’s a just a problem he had with some contacts. The Cardinals suspect it’s a degenerative condition that could greatly hinder his playing ability and are awaiting test results. More will be unfolding, I’m sure. The Cardinals can recoup the bonus if it is a pre-existing condition.

So it’s officially official in all of it’s official-ness. Wagner Mateo is a St. Louis Cardinal. Big surprise. It’s like opening your Christmas presents early. The bonus amount is believed to be $3.1M, which in this economy is really something. The bonus breaks several records.

• It is the largest bonus given to a Dominican position player. The biggest bonus to a Dominican player was given to RHP Michel Inoa last year by the A’s, at $4.25M
• It’s a record bonus by the Cardinals given to a Latin American signee. The previous record was set last year when the Cardinals signed 3B Roberto de la Cruz.
• It’s the biggest bonus given to an amateur by the Cardinals. J.D. Drew received a $3M bonus when he was drafted.

Some front office reaction:

“Wagner is the top player available in Latin America this year and we have scouted him heavily over the past two years,” stated Cardinals’ Director of International Operations Moises Rodriguez. “His bat is special and we look forward to his continued development as a professional.”

So what about Wagner Mateo as a ballplayer? Some of you may have heard him compared to five-tool talents like Carlos Beltran or Grady Sizemore. Reading after Ben Badler and Jorge Arangure, all that seems like more hype than substance. Don’t get me wrong, Mateo is an elite talent. But he’s not a five-tool talent. He has the all important tool, and that is the ability to hit the baseball. Merely based on what I’ve read, Mateo’s OFP (overall future potential) sounds like it would be graded as such on the 20-80 scouting scale:

Hit: 60, maybe better.
Power: 55, 60 potential. More of a line-drive swing now, but definite power is shown in batting practice.
Run: 40. He’s got a mature body already at 6-1, 190.
Throwing: Not sure, but most scouts think he’s destined for left-field rather than right, so I’d imagine average at best.
Fielding: Again, not sure but you have to think at best average given his speed, although we know there is more to outfield defense than speed.

Putting it all together, you have an left-fielder that could hit around .300 and could have double-digit home-run totals, with some 20-25 homer potential on the high end. Of course, we’re talking about a 16-year old, so that would be one of the best possible outcomes. It’s hard to say for sure what the Cardinals will get, and we’re talking about someone who is a long ways away from making an impact.

Here again are the videos, for your perusal so you can judge for yourself:

This is a red-letter day for Cardinal fans. We won’t really hear much more on Mateo until next year, when the next GCL season starts.

I’ll be talking tomorrow to Ben Badler regarding Mateo and the July 2 signing on BlogTalkRadio. The show will be at 2pm Central, be sure to tune in for more.

Per Jorge Arangure of the worldwide leader, via twitter

Mateo/Cards deal is $3.1. SF close second. Giants almost offer $3.5 but got cold feet. Cards GM went to Mateo’s house to close the deal.

Mo the closer!

This breaks the team record $3M deal given to J.D. Drew 11 years ago. Pretty monumental stuff.

UPDATED: Done deal, according to Jorge Arangure, who works for ESPN.com. $3.1M deal, record breaker for Cards.

Bu-bam! Per Ben Badler

The latest buzz in Latin America is that the Cardinals are expected to sign 16-year-old Dominican outfielder Wagner Mateo for a bonus of approximately $3 million on July 2.

A $3 million bonus would be the second-biggest bonus ever given to an amateur international player from Latin America, and the largest bonus ever for a Latin American hitter.

Wow. Not only is a $3M bonus the largest bonus given to a Latin American hitter, it’s also almost the largest bonus the Cardinals have ever given to an amateur. J.D. Drew received a $3M bonus, Rick Ankiel’s was the 2nd highest bonus at $2.5M. This also obviously shatters the $1.1M record bonus given to Roberto de la Cruz last year by far. Pretty monumental stuff.

My initial reaction is “wow”. That’s a lot of scratch for a 16-year old kid. Is he worth it? Kiley McDaniel ranked him the 3rd best Latin American on the market, besides Miguel Sano and Gary Sanchez. McDaniel says he’s what scouts call a “tool shed” and he’s been drawn some lofty comparisons — Carlos Beltran, Curtis Granderson and Grady Sizemore. Reading other sources, some scouts like his swing and see him as more of a line-drive hitter than a big home run threat. They also see a filled-out body for a youngster (yes, his background checks were fine) at 6-1, 190 and think he’ll eventually be moved to a corner, where his bat wouldn’t profile quite as well.

Here’s a video of Mateo in action, shot by BP’s Kiley McDaniel.

Wagner Mateo from Kiley McDaniel on Vimeo.

This is exciting stuff, but I’m always a little leery about giving 16-year old kids gobs of money like this. If this means no Shelby Miller, which I don’t think it does, or at least I really hope it doesn’t, then groovy. Way to build up the farm system with some high upside talent. But Mateo at the expense of Miller wouldn’t look as hot.

What’s also interesting about this is that Joe Strauss reported earlier that Mozeliak was traveling to the DR to look at Sano. No doubt he was also checking out Mateo, and there was a rumor that Mateo turned down a $3M offer. Sounds like they realized the mistake and took the offer after all.