St. Louis Cardinals: International Signings

July 2nd is the day of International drafting and signing.  The St. Louis Cardinals have tapped six players who should impact the future of this team.

Our chief editor here at Redbird Rants, Steven McNeil, shared earlier that the St. Louis Cardinals are primed to, “…become heavily involved in the spending for these international free agents.”  How exciting then is the news of six impacting players from international locales!

As the news rolls out more and more today, stay here for more information and reaction.  In the meantime, let’s look at the six names that have been released as having been selected by our St. Louis Cardinals.

With $2,027,300 to spend in the signing period, according to Derrick Goold, the St. Louis Cardinals are predicted to use this year to overspend in anticipation of coming rule changes in relation to international signees.

For more on penalties to be faced when overspending, visit Steven’s piece on the St. Louis Cardinals’ interest in Lazaro Armenteros from earlier this year.

According to Baseball America, the Cardinals have selected six players in today’s signing period.  These players hail from Cuba, Venezula, and the Dominican Republic.  Now to examine them one by one, as best we can.

Dominican Republic

The St. Louis Cardinals are set to sign two players from the Dominican Republic from today’s signing period.  These players are Carlos Soler, an outfielder, and Roy Garcia, a right-handed pitcher.

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Carlos Soler is a powerhouse outfielder at 6’3″ and 165 pounds, he has immense promise.  Ranked at number thirty-five in Baseball America’s top fifty listing of the international prospects, Soler is also noted as having the best arm in the class according to their prospect survey.

Very little has been released on Roy Garcia at this time but stick with us and we will update as more is released.  It is interesting, nevertheless, to note that the St. Louis Cardinals have signed a catcher as we have all watched this season and off-season as the organization has attempted to find a future replacement for Yadier Molina.

Venezuela

The St. Louis Cardinals are set to sign two players originating from the country of Venezuela.  These players are Diomedes Del Rio, an outfielder, and Victor Garcia, an outfielder.

Diomedes Del Rio is an outfielder with little information released.  As in Garcia above, stick with us and we will update as we dig into more information.

Victor Garcia, on the other hand, has a great deal of information released.  This tenth-ranked player among the top fifty (according to Baseball America) comes in at 6’2″, 225 pounds and can both man the outfield and rake at the plate.  Garcia is a corner outfield with a huge upside.  I am excited for this signing and hope the Cards can get a contract quickly on this guy.

Cuba

The St. Louis Cardinals are set to sign two players originating from the country of Cuba.  These players are Johan Oviedo, a right-handed pitcher, and Jonathan Machado, an outfielder.  Of all the signings, these players from Cuba carrying the strongest buzz and promise.

To most, Oviedo is not as known or as exciting as the other player from Cuba (to be reviewed in just a second).  That said, Jesse Sanchez recently tweeted promising information:

Now to the player generating the greatest buzz in this signing period for the St. Louis Cardinals: Jonathan Machado.  Machado is not listed in the top fifty prospects by Baseball America, but that doesn’t diminish the excitement felt by the Cardinals organization.  That said, Machado was ranked the number ten prospect by MLB.com.

According to MLBTR, Machado and the St. Louis Cardinals are currently working/completing a $2.3MM deal.  In addition, MLBTR offers comparisons to Kenny Lofton and Ichiro Suzuki.  Baseball America has provided a nice scouting report for Machado here highlighting his .336/.387/.451 slash line from 2014.

Here’s the highlight videos of his contact prowess:

What’s left.

Now we wait.  Or rather, now we all wear out our F5 key to refresh our twitter feeds to see which of these six players are completely landed and which receive contracts.  To that end, Bob Rains shared just moments ago:

Let us all hope that great things come from today and that these players add depth and value and impact the team in many great ways to come.

Next: International Signing Primer

Redbird Rants will keep our eyes and ears open today and will update our page as soon as we get our hands on information.  In other words, stick with us today: follow our page and follow our twitter account.