International signing period nets 2 in top 12

First $2 million-plus go to OF, SS from Dominican Republic

A year ago it was Shalin Polanco, the Pirates signing the 16-year-old outfielder to a contract that carried a $2.35 million bonus, second-largest for a non-drafted international free agent in franchise history.

With the start of the 2022 international signing period arriving Saturday, the Pirates are in the process of creating a successful sequel, as they’ve already signed two of the top 12 available players in outfielder Tony Blanco Jr. (11th per MLB Pipeline) and shortstop Yordany De Los Santos (12th).

Blanco received a $900,000 signing bonus, De Los Santos $1.2 million, a source confirmed to the Pittsburgh PostGazette. Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com was the first to reportthose figures.

Thesignings — which we’ll get to shortly — come exactly a year after the Pirates inked another Polanco (no relation to Gregory), who was ranked eighth by Baseball America and11th by MLB Pipeline, further what the organization hopes to be a stronger push to acquiretop Latin talent.

Given the stature of Blanco and De Los Santos, the bonuses they received figured to take up a sizable chunk of the Pirates’ allotted bonus pool of $6,262,600 — tied with seven others for the most among MLB’s30 clubs. Blanco and De Los Santos will consume a little more than a third of that, whichis fairly reasonable.

One of the byproducts of COVID-19 was shifting the international signing period from July 2 to Jan. 15. This marks the second consecutive year MLB has used this schedule for teams to sign players who predominantly hail from the Dominican Republicand Venezuela.

Blanco (Nigua) and De Los Santos (Santo Domingo) are both from the Dominican Republic. Listed at 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, the most noticeable thing about Blanco is his size. He profiles as a corner outfielderand is someone with 40homer potential, MLB Pipeline said in its thumbnail sketchof him.

Blanco’s best skills are his bat speed and advanced strike-zone awareness and pitch recognition, MLB Pipeline wrote, with those evaluators grading his five tools at 50 or 55 on the 20-to-80 scale; both prospects received overall gradesof 55.

Blanco’s father, Tony Jr., played for the Nationals in 2005 and was a four-time AllStarin Japan.

De Los Santos (6-1, 170) obviously isn’t as big, but he has a projectable body that should be able to generate plenty of power. He also has plus-arm potential and could conceivably wind up moving to third base.

The Pirates have been linked to De Los Santos for a while, dating to August. Meanwhile, the Blanco signing was a little bit more of a surprise, as he was originally expected to sign with the Rays.

Another player to whom thePirates have been linked is 20-year-oldChang Hung-Leng, a Taiwanese right-hander. That signing continues a run of success in Taiwan that dates to October 2020, when they signed Po-Yu Chen with the extra slot money they picked up in the Jarrod Dyson deal.

Other members of the Pirates 2022 international class thus far include outfielder Eduardo Oviedo, righthander Piterson Rosa, shortstop Daje Morales, shortstop Ronny Aguiar, catcher Axiel Plaz and shortstop Cristopher Orelin. All but Plaz (Venezuela) are from the Dominican Republic.