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Yankees Editorial: Bombers Among Top Five Suitors for Yoan Moncada

By Michael Cambria

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Over the course of the past few baseball seasons, we’ve all seen the recent influx and tremendous success of Cuban defectors, which leads up to this off-season’s excitement and buzz surrounding the 19-year old infielder, Yoan Moncada, who was just cleared by the MLB to sign with any team this past week. According to Matt Waymire and Jim Duquette of MLB.com, the New York Yankees are among the top five suitors to acquire the future star.

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Moncada is considered by many scouts to be the best young Cuban prospect to come along since Yasiel Puig and Jorge Soler in 2012. Due to his young age and lack of experience in Cubans Serie Nacionale, Moncada is subject to the international amateur signing guidelines, which puts a restriction on the amount of money teams can spend on him depending how much they spent on similar players during the previous signing period.

Major leagues clubs are penalized if they exceed their bonus limit, and the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Tampa Bay Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks have all already exceeded their limit by more than 15 percent, which puts them in the maximum penalty range for the upcoming 2015-16 signing period. The penalty includes a 100 percent tax on their bonus overages and prohibits them from signing any eligible international free-agents  for more than $300,000 over their next two signing periods

Of course, the aforementioned restrictions won’t stop the Evil Empire. Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com recently ranked the top five destinations for the Cuban star, and surprise surprise, the Yankees top the list, followed closely by the Red Sox, Dodgers, Tigers and Padres.

The Yankees have been linked to Moncada for quite some time, and they are viewed by many insiders to be the favorite landing spot for the switch-hitting youngster, who would instantaneously become the brightest prospect in their revamped farm system.  Despite having a $2.2 million limit on international free-agents per signing period, the Yankees have already spent close to $15 million since last summer, which is why pushing the envelope a bit further for Moncada makes complete sense. They’re already going to be penalized for the next two signing periods, so why not spend big now?

The Yankees will need to pay a 100 percent dollar-for-dollar penalty on any potential Moncada contract, for example, a deal that includes a $30 million bonus would actually cost the Yanks about $60 million, fortunately we all know they can afford it. As far as relying on the international market to build the organization back up, Moncada is viewed as their last chance to use their checkbook as a weapon.

As he did for many other teams, Moncada held a private workout for the Yankees down in Tampa, Florida, and he’s projected to play either second or third base. If the Yankees end up signing him, he’ll fit nicely into their farm system and would get ample opportunities to rise quickly up the ladder, a point Moncada and his agent David Hastings will surely stress during negotiations.

Bottom line, the Yankees stood pat and watched Jon Lester, Max Scherzer and James Shields sign with other teams, but when the Yankees covet a player, they can financially outbid any team in baseball, as we saw last winter in their pursuit of Masahiro Tanaka. In my opinion, Moncada seems to be another player the Yankees covet, and signing him would make the 2015 off-season an instant success for the New York Yankees. What do you think Yankee fans? Let us know in the comments below.

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