Yankees 2021 international prospects signing tracker

It’s been a busy day for the Yankees, as in addition to coming to terms with DJ LeMahieu, engaging with Corey Kluber, and attempting to avoid as many arbitration cases as they can by the deadline today, they also had their first opportunity to sign international free agents. The IFA signing period was bumped from July 1st of last year to January 15th due in part to the pandemic (the signing period will also open January 15th next offseason, in 2022). It will be open until December 15th.

Anyone featured could have been signed last July; they just weren’t because of the signing period change. So numerous deals that are being officially agreed to today have actually been in the works for quite some time.

The Yankees are working with a bit of a handicap this go-around, as they forfeited about $1 million in bonus pool space to sign Gerrit Cole prior to the 2020 campaign. There will probably not be any Jasson Dominguez-esque uber-talents (though you never know with prospect development). So they have $4,232,700 in bonus money to dish out, and unlike in previous years, that’s locked in. They can’t trade for extra bonus money; that’s an MLB-wide change for this signing period.

MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez and Baseball America always do incredible work keeping track of all the signings around the game. We’ll keep you all posted on who the Yankees sign, and our own Dan Kelly will have a more in-depth column coming tomorrow morning detailing each of the new Baby Bombers.

• In the most expected news of the day, Sanchez reported that the Yankees signed 17-year-old Hans Montero to a $1.7 million deal. The Dominican-born shortstop was listed among MLB’s “best of the rest” for top prospects. They had been linked to Montero since September 2019.

• These signings have not been made official with exact figures yet, but Baseball America also reported that the Yankees came to terms with Dominican outfielders Fidel Montero (no relation) and Ramiro Altagracia, and switch-hitting Venezuelan shortstop Kleiner Delgado. Note that Fidel Montero is listed as a shortstop on the BA tracker, but he profiles as an outfielder.
• Baseball America reported another Yankees international signing on Saturday. Dominican third baseman Johan Ferreira will be joining the club. He turned 18 last October.
• This is more of an extra note, but one prospect who the Yankees were once connected to is Jesus Galiz, a Venezuelan catcher. As time went on though, he ended up in the Dodgers’ court. Los Angeles signed him for $400,000.