Cubs Sign SS Gleyber Torres and RHP Jefferson Mejia, a Complete IFA Roundup

In Commentary And Analysis, News And Rumors by dmick8977 Comments

gleyber-torres2Cub Signings

Baseball America is reporting that the Cubs have agreed to terms with RHP Jefferson Mejia (#20 in TheAncientMarinner's rankings) for $850K. Mejia was eligible to sign last year, but had problems with his paperwork. As such, he is older than most of the top prospects being signed in this period. If he gets his paperwork sorted out, he could start playing right away.

The Cubs have also agreed to terms with Venezuelan shortstop Gleyber Torres (BA #2, TAM #3), according to MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez. Can someone help me with the pronunciation of his first name?

Assuming both of those signings are made official, don't count on the Cubs announcing any more signings before acquiring additional pool space. The Cubs have also been frequently connected to Eloy Jimenez (BA #1, TAM #1), but in combination with the other two players, his signing would take the Cubs above their allotted $4.5 million in total bonus pool. A Spanish language site is reporting his agreement with the Cubs (h/t Ryno) for $2.7 million. Unless the Cubs decide to simply ignore the bonus restrictions, they will likely wait on any official agreement until a trade for more space is completed. This is consistent with a report that Jimenez will not sign until later in the week.

Trade Possibilities

Late last night word leaked that Steve Clevenger had packed his bags and been told to wait at his hotel room. Speculation was that he would be involved in a deal to acquire additional IFA slots, possibly with the Marlins. No additional word of that potential trade has yet leaked out today. In addition, nothing has been said on the Matt Garza front. I speculated yesterday that he could be involved in a deal to acquire more pool money, but it may well be that the Cubs can accomplish that without trading Garza, and will hold out for better prospects in a Garza trade. As a clarification to my post from the other day, MLB does not want teams to be able to buy slot space from other teams, but the Cubs could send cash in a Garza trade to offset his salary. This ability to offset salary represents a giant loophole in the effort to stop teams from buying slots.

Rangers Blowing Through Their Limits?

The Rangers may have decided to ignore their spending limits and face the consequences. The same site that has Eloy signing with the Cubs is indicating that the Rangers are comitted to $4.25 million for three players. The Rangers' original pool was just $1.94 million, meaning that if they acquired the maximum of extra space (150%) and went 5% over that total, they could spend only $3.05 million. Above that amount, they will face penalties in signing IFAs in 2014-2015.

 • 15 percent or more over pool: 100 percent tax on the pool overage. Team won’t be allowed to sign a player for more than $250,000 during the 2014-15 signing period.

Note that their total pool in 2014-2015 would not be reduced, instead they would simply be limited in the amount that they could spend on any one player. This seems like a viable strategy if they feel that this year's class is especially strong in premium players. If they are taking this tack, it will be interesting to see how far they go with it. Would they be willing to challenge the Cubs for Jimenez? I'll take a wait-and-see approach.

Jefferson Mejia Scouting Reports

TheAncientMariners

Mejia's age may be in question but his ability and size isn't. With his massive extra large frame he's an intimidating presence out to the mound. Fastball sits 91-93 with good downward plane. Can get both righties and lefties out with a nasty 74-75mph changeup that falls off the table. Also throws a solid curveball at 75-76. His mechanics are fairly sound for someone his size and he seems to have the athleticism to repeat his delivery. Was declared ineligible to sign for one year by MLB after lying about his age. He claimed to be 16 when he was apparently 17. He will be allowed to sign on April 4th.

Gleyber Torres Scouting Reports

BA

Torres is a savvy player with present skills and the potential for five average or better tools. He has a clean, compact stroke, hits in games and shows good power projection, although he mostly works the gaps right now. He has good bat speed and hand-eye coordination to put the ball in play, although he can be a bit of a front-foot hitter and tends to pull off the ball at times.

Some scouts believe Torres is a true shortstop, while others think he’s not athletic enough. He could end up being a guy who splits time between shortstop, third base and second base, with a skill set that draws comparisons to Freddy Sanchez. He has good hands and a strong arm, but he doesn’t have the classic wiry shortstop frame and is already fairly filled out. Back in November, Torres showed above-average speed, but more recently he’s been running closer to average.

TAM

Considered the top Venezuelan prospect in the 2013 class, Torres is a product of the Ciro Barrios camp that also trained last year's top prospect Franklin Barreto (Blue Jays). While Torres does not have Barretto's level of international success and experience on his resume, some scouts consider him to be the better overall prospect, due to his power and greater likelihood of remaining at short. Torres is a polished player with a high floor, and though he doesn't offer much projection, what he is right now is already pretty good. A smooth defender with above average arm strength and innate natural instincts on the infield, Torres is exactly what you would want in a shortstop prospect. Offensively, he has a clean swing and shows patience and a good approach at the plate. Scouts see Torres as being the type of hitter who could hit for average while adding 15-20 homeruns a year. Torres only below-average tool is his lack of pure footspeed (7.02), but he has much better range than one would expect from a player with that kind of 60-time. The Cubs are said to be the team most aggressive on him, offering a bonus as high as 2mm.

Comparison: John Valentin

 

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  10. Aisle424

    Does anybody know if there are any opinions from a non-hitting coach about how the Cubs are ruining Starlin Castro?

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  11. GW

    @ Aisle424:

    Gleyber + Jefferson puts them at $2.55 million. Should be able to sign Moreno without approaching their non-trade supplemented limit of $4.56 million.

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  13. josh

    @ GW:
    Oh, read it wrong. “Gli’-bar” with a long i sound, rhymes with “guy-bar” is my guess, though I could see “Glay-bar” being correct.

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  19. GW

    23 Orioles $520,100
    53 Orioles $351,200
    83 Orioles $237,200
    113 Orioles $150,900

    potential slots. if they get all of them it would only be $1.26 million.

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  25. GW

    @ GW:

    acquiring all of them would leave the cubs w/ $3.56 million in pool space (including 5% overage). if eloy signs for $2.7 (and there are still Rangers rumors floating around), that leaves $857k for Moreno plus whatever else.

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  40. Mucker

    Regarding Arrieta, I live in the Baltimore area and have watched him pitch. He actually has good stuff so I’m not sure why he can’t put it together. I like the trade.

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  43. Ryno

    Berselius wrote:

    @ 2883:
    I guess that if the Cubs have depth anywhere, it’s in MILF

    2883 wrote:

    @ Berselius:
    I mean his is true but you don’t mortgage that depth for international sluts

    Dirty Cubs.

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  45. josh

    @ 2883:
    It’s obvious to me. Myles spelled it out yesterday. The Cubs can’t compete without some serious upgrades, especially in the outfield and in pitching. This is their only option to be able to pick up quality players. In retrospect, I wonder if they didn’t miss out on underbidding for Darvish and Puig. That was their time to spend big. Now they have to play roster games.

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  46. Berselius

    @ josh:

    I’m not that upset about those guys the Cubs missed in the old IFA rules. They were right in there on Darvish, and it sure seemed like a huge risk for the Rangers to pony up $50m just to even get Darvish to the table.

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  49. josh

    @ Berselius:
    I know, it makes it hard to justify given how much the Rangers and Dodgers paid, but you can understand their feelings of desperation on the rules change.

    I think these are good signs. This is their gambit. They put their minds together and this is the move they came up with to exploit the new CBA. We’ll see if Theo earns our votes of confidence from two years ago.

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  56. Ryno

    Rice Cube wrote:

    @ Berselius:
    They saved some $ and I think Colin Wyers hypothesized they did it to shut the media up.

    …that was the day that I left the Cell (I don’t think it was called that then, but that’s an easy shorthand) wearing my Kerry Wood jersey, to yells of “Cubs suck!“ from Sox fans. I turned around and said, “I can’t argue with you today.“ Shut ‘em right up.
    — Alvin

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  57. Ryno

    I’ve spent all day looking online for Gleybar Torres’ projected R+RBI, but I can’t find it. Does anyone know?

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  59. Mucker

    Ryno wrote:

    …that was the day that I left the Cell (I don’t think it was called that then, but that’s an easy shorthand) wearing my Kerry Wood jersey, to yells of “Cubs suck!“ from Sox fans. I turned around and said, “I can’t argue with you today.“ Shut ‘em right up.
    – Alvin

    That is Top 3 on my Yellonisms list.

    1. Amusing, but wrong.
    2. Shut ’em right up
    3. So who actually owns the Cubs?

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  64. Ryno

    Ryno wrote:

    josh wrote:
    @ 2883:
    Now they have to play roster games.

    At least they can. The never let poor Rudolph join in…

    The negative faget point bandit mildly dislikes that joke, but I think it was very well crafted.

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  66. EnricoPallazzo

    i really don’t understand the logic behind the torreyes deal. obviously thoyer/macleod know a lot more than i do so i should just give them the benefit of the doubt but i am fucking pissed about that.

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