This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat e-newsletter. To learn the total e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it often in your inbox.
Braves director of Latin American scouting Jonathan Cruz initially thought of Gleyber Torres as the very best comp for Jose Perdomo. This was definitely a complimentary analysis, given Torres was MLB Pipeline’s No. 3 worldwide prospect earlier than he signed with the Cubs in 2013.
Torres has since earned a pair of All-Star picks and produced 4 20-homer seasons for the Yankees.
If that’s what Perdomo turns into, the Braves will likely be pleased with the funding they made on Monday, after they gave the 17-year-old Venezuelan a $5 million bonus to signal his first skilled contract. It was the most important bonus given to any worldwide prospect this yr.
However the Braves will really be thrilled if Perdomo, ranked by MLB Pipeline because the No. 3 prospect within the 2024 worldwide class, lives as much as the comp a veteran scout gave Cruz a pair years in the past.
“He mentioned [Perdomo] appeared like a younger Miguel Cabrera, and that caught with me,” Cruz mentioned. “I began digging into previous movies and began speaking to the scout that signed [Cabrera]. And, yeah, I believe that’s the closest, actual comp for Perdomo.
“I’m snug saying that. It’s a giant identify to check him to — a future Corridor of Famer. However the bat was … that’s what Miggy appeared like.”
Given latest historical past, Braves followers shouldn’t be overly involved about whether or not Perdomo will attain the heights of Cabrera. However it’s comprehensible if they simply need the younger shortstop to be one thing greater than Kevin Maitan. He was one of many franchise’s most-hyped worldwide prospects since Andruw Jones and Wilson Betemit.
Proper now, a few of you might be cussing Maitan and the whole lot else pertaining to the Braves’ 2016 worldwide class. The unlawful meeting of this over-hyped group led to MLB levying vital sanctions towards the group. Eight years later, Maitan and most members of this class haven’t lived as much as expectations.
You would possibly keep in mind when Maitan was given his $4.25 million signing bonus in 2016. Ronald Acuña Jr. was given a $100,000 signing bonus two years earlier. However you in all probability didn’t hear about that till he started blossoming into one of many sport’s biggest gamers.
It’s tough to venture what you will get when you find yourself taking faculty gamers and highschool graduates within the MLB Draft. Most of these gamers vary from 17-21 years previous. The worldwide market supplies a fair better problem as gamers start to be focused earlier than they’re youngsters.
“It’s the Wild West in worldwide [scouting],” Cruz mentioned. “We’re scouting these youngsters as younger as we will scout them. If we’re scouting the [2024 or 2025 class] and we see a [2028 or 2029 eligible player] on the sphere, we’re not going to shut our eyes.
“We want it was sort of just like the Draft course of, the place you come into a call with three or 4 years of historical past, however that is not the case. So we do our greatest to get historical past early. And when the time comes, we’ll make an knowledgeable determination and, hopefully, get the appropriate man.”
Cruz mentioned he first noticed Perdomo at the very least three years in the past, when a Venezuelan scout introduced the younger participant for an early morning exercise. This marked the beginning of a pursuit that would pay dividends close to the top of this decade, across the time present contracts for Acuña and Ozzie Albies are set to run out.
Perdomo nonetheless has a child face, very like the one Cabrera and others have displayed even after reaching the Majors. The hope is he’ll stay a shortstop. However like with a younger Chipper Jones, his profession will likely be outlined by his bat, not his skill to play shortstop.
The sanctions levied in 2017 took the Braves out of the worldwide marketplace for a couple of years. This has influenced the shortage of place participant depth inside their pitching-heavy farm system. Perdomo is the potential impression participant the membership was looking for.
“I might say [Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos] would say there’s on the spot worth there,” Cruz mentioned. “That is our shot at getting a man who’s going to impression us in a pair years. We’re not going to place a timetable on him. Everybody has completely different clocks. However we’re taking a look at a possible impression participant within the bigs, not simply a median participant.”
