International Signings, Trades and the Braves
By Fred Owens
The international Signing period opened yesterday and as Alan wrote the Braves were in early and big for the players they wanted. Before they completed those deals however they had to make some trades.
Trades = International signings
Alan’s piece yesterday featured reports saying the Braves had agreed to sign Derian Cruz and Christian Pache. Why weren’t they signed immediately? Money. No the Braves didn’t need to float a note, they needed permission to spend money. Here’s how it works.
- The Braves allocation for the 2015-2016 signing period as determined by the benevolent folks at MLB per the latest CBA Atlanta’s is $2,458,400.
- The agreements to sign the Braves made yesterday are reported to total $3.4M or about $1.058M more than they were allocated and that would be bad.
- Teams may exceed their allocation by 50% before incurring substantial penalties.
- Spending up to 5% more results in a fine equal to 100% of the excess.
- Spending 5% -10% more results in a fine equal to 100% of the excess and a limit of $500K on individual signing bonuses for the next International signing period.
- Spending 10% -15% more results in a fine equal to 100% of the excess and a limit of $300K on individual signing bonuses for the next International signing period.
- Spending more than 15% more results in a fine equal to 100% of the excess and a limit of $300K on individual signing bonuses for the next two International signing periods.
The loophole however is that teams may trade for up to an additional 50% of their original bonus pool. In the Braves case that means they could expand their pool to $3,687,600 via trade with other teams. MLBTR said this morning the number is $3.9M but I can’t see how that get there unless there’s more magic to the formula than a flat 150%. In any case that amount becomes their limit before a penalty is imposed.
Teams must have the increased allocation complete before the actual signings are made, thus the lack of formal announcements yesterday and flurry of trading activity.
Next: The Trades They Made