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Bomber Bites- Don’t Put All The Yankees Eggs In Yoan Moncada’s Basket

By Jason Evans|

Other than James Shields, the big name that’s out there is Yoan Moncada. The 19 year old Cuban infielder has fans and executives just waiting for him to be cleared by MLB. MLB and OFAC are meeting at some point this week, so hopefully the situation will be resolved and Moncada and others can be signed. In fact, maybe Moncada is the reason why Shields isn’t signed yet.

Moncada is a can’t miss kid. Well, so was Billy Beane, Brien Taylor and Todd Van Poppel. This game chews up top prospects and spits them out. 

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First of all, once he gets cleared, the Yankees have to sign him. The Dodgers and Red Sox are interested too and guess what? They’ve got money too. The industry is flush with cash right now. Either of those teams could push their chips to the table. Plus, they each have Cuban players playing on their teams right now, which may give them a slight advantage.

The Yankees were supposed to have interest in prospects like Rusney Castillo, Yasmany Tomas and Yoan Lopez and all three ended up signing elsewhere. The Yankees went all in on the international free agent market, and Moncada can be the icing on that very expensive cake, but as I said, they’ll have competition.

Secondly, one of these Cuban players is bound to fail. It’s going to happen. You can say Dayan Viciedo was since he was recently DFA’d by the White Sox. Henry Urrutia hasn’t done much with the Orioles. But for all those guys there is Yasiel Puig, Aroldis Chapman, Jose Abreu etc.

Am I saying Moncada is going to flop? No. I’ve never seen him play and I can’t make that judgement. But to me, there is always a chance that he could and you as a fan have to prepare for that. Could it cost $70 million to get this guy ($35 million bonus, $35 million tax) Absolutely. So you better be right on a kid you’re preparing to spend that kind of coin on.

Moncada is only 19. If he signs, you more than likely wouldn’t see him in the majors until 2016 at the earliest. He’s going to need time to adjust to not only baseball here, but being in America. He could be the next Robinson Cano, and I do hope the Yankees sign him and he and Gregory Bird patrol that side of the infield for years to come.

However, you have to manage your expectations. You just never know.

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