Wheeling, dealing for a better future

Nearly $8 million in international bonus slots spent, traded last 2 years

Thanks to the Orioles’ July 2018 trades and a general avoidance of the international amateur free-agent market when a new crop of Latin American talent became available in July, the organization had a massive account of signing bonus slots last summer without any premium talent to spend it on.

Dan Duquette, then the executive vice president of baseball operations, acquired a combined $2.75 million in pool money from the Atlanta Braves last summer in trades for Brad Brach, Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day. Combined with the team’s allotted $5.5 million bonus pool, the Orioles had $8.25 million in bonus slots available to spend on international amateurs from August on, after many of the top talents for that period already signed.

In the ensuing 10 months, the following transpired: The Orioles signed a group of players to bonuses of around $1 million under Duquette. They missed out on Cuban stars Victor Victor Mesa, Victor Mesa Jr. and Sandy Gaston in the interim period before new executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias arrived. They hired senior director of international scouting Koby Perez in January to jump-start the operation. They spent another $1 million on international free agents, including the highest bonus of the signing period to outfielder Stiven Acevedo. And they made nine trades to bolster the farm system and major league roster with the international bonus slots they couldn’t spend on players.

All that whittled the bonus pool down to $400,000 as this signing period ends Saturday.

A fresh signing period featuring a new batch of 16-year-old international amateurs begins July 2, and the Orioles’ pool for 2019 allows them to spend $6.48 million without penalty.

Elias has promised the biggest July 2 signing period in franchise history, coming after a period in which Duquette said it was an ownership directive not to spend in that area.

But there was a lot of pool money to be accounted for during the 2018-19 international signing period, and here’s an accounting of where the majority of that went.