Just saw this article...anyone on that list of players seem attainable for us? https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ml...ctions/ar-BBFsrpC?li=BBnb7Kz&OCID=msnHomepage
From what I heard is that they are still subject to IFA pool rules as it is like contracts never happened...except prospects are a little richer now.
http://m.mlb.com/news/article/26232...an-and-other-former-braves/?topicid=151437456 Any team wanting to pursue any of these prospects will get a little help. Major League Baseball has given an exemption to any team signing players who became free agents. The first $200K of the subsequent bonuses for any of the 12 former Braves prospects will not be subject to signing pools. In addition, as a special stipulation for these players, teams have the option of counting the bonus toward the current (2017-18) signing period or the following (2018-19) one, though teams can't combine pool money. So, Astros may be in a better position than I thought. Not many teams have money left in their IFA budget for this year or next year. Granted, an Ohtani loser may just sweep up everyone.
Wait, so we can add this to our current bonus pool? We're already over, so I can't see any reason we shouldn't be major players for these guys. Scooping up prospects over the next few years is gonna be really difficult. Our draft pool and international pool are gonna be much lower, may as well funnel some of that cash this way.
The Astros are probably still well under their overall pool this period due to restrictions. They're capped at 300k for any signing this period and next (due to going over in 16-17). If the first 200k doesn't count for the Ex-Braves, the Astros can offer 500k for each individual player--max. Unfortunately, that means they probably won't be in the mix for the big names here.
Unlikely thought, but knowing they get to keep their previous bonuses maybe they're looking for a proven winner now.
Maitan is from Venezuela...maybe he’d like to join another Venezuelan MVP? (Doubtful, but you can hope, right?) Given the Astros will have smaller draft budgets and international pools for the next couple years, it will be interesting to see if they’re aggressive here.
Now that they're out of the running for Ohtani, it's possible that they could take a look at these kids.