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Braves News: Braves sign highly ranked outfielder Luis Guanipa

By Eric Cole

A general view of gloves and an Atlanta Braves hat against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on July 26, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Braves defeated the Phillies 6-3. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
A general view of gloves and an Atlanta Braves hat against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on July 26, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Braves defeated the Phillies 6-3. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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The international free agent signing period opened up today and for the Atlanta Braves, it is a chance to replenish the lower levels of their minor league system which, frankly, sorely need some replenishing…especially on the position player side. Fortunately for the Braves, they added some real offensive talent right out of the gates as they added one of the top bats in the IFA class in outfielder Luis Guanipa out of Venezuela.

Before the signing period opened up, Guanipa was long rumored to be connected to the Braves with Fangraphs predicting that the Braves would sign Luis for a bonus just shy of $3 million. After a bit of a dead period, it was finally reported that Guanipa’s bonus was for $2.5 million which beat the expectation in the Braves’ favor by a few hundred thousand.

Why Luis Guanipa is a great signing for the Atlanta Braves

In Guanipa, the Braves are getting a outfielder with a really good chance of sticking in center that has real upside at the plate. His top end speed and smaller frame does have some predicting that he could be a more of a dangerous top of the order bat, but his bat speed is lauded by scouts and with a bit more added strength, he could hit for more power than people are giving him credit for.

There does seem to be some variance in the evaluations of Guanipa as while Baseball America (on their bonus board) and Fangraphs (among the non-Japanese players) have him as a top 10 player in the class, MLB Pipeline has him at #34 on their rankings. It is worth mentioning that Pipeline has Guanipa listed at 5’9 which is by far the shortest that he is listed amongst the major publications which could be reflected in their rankings. Obviously we haven’t seen Guanipa yet, so its very much “to be determined” as to what he currently looks like physically. Plus, ranking teenagers from the international market when they are this young is incredibly hard to get right one way or the other anyways.

Once we know more about who the Braves are signing in this IFA class, we will provide updates and info as it comes available. Guanipa represents a significant portion of the Braves’ bonus pool from this signing period, but it sure does seem like they still have some money to throw around and given that Luis is the only top name they are connected to, we could see them spread that money around a bit this go around.

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