Another former Braves prospect, shortstop Livan Soto

[John Smith]

Ben Badler‏ @BenBadler 53s54 seconds ago

 

 

Another former Braves prospect, shortstop Livan Soto, is going to the Angels:

[ettin]

1 minute ago, John Smith said:

Ben Badler‏ @BenBadler 53s54 seconds ago

 

 

Another former Braves prospect, shortstop Livan Soto, is going to the Angels:

Guess I need to click a few seconds faster John, LOL.

[John Smith]

Livan Soto, ss – Angels, $850,000 (Braves bonus: $1 million)
Read more at https://www.baseballamerica.com/international/former-braves-prospects-signing/#yxKjLMqLao5Pva81.99

[John Smith]

Livan Soto was impressive in the field at shortstop showing great reads off the bat and strong range. If he can fill out a bit, he could prove to be a good hitter as well although as of now he lacks any meaningful power given how skinny he is currently.

https://www.talkingchop.com/2017/11/21/16687052/atlanta-braves-losing-prospects-yefri-del-rosario-livan-soto-as-well-to-mlb-investigation-per-report

[krAbs]

Anxiously waiting to see which pool of money this is coming from...if it's next year's, awesome, rounding out our young prospects. If it's this year's, then ohtani must have said no.

[Stradling]

@Jeff Fletcher, you tweeted and recanted this earlier today?  Is it true?

[Second Base]

That's a pretty hefty bonus for a defense-first shortstop.  Maybe they have faith he'll develop into something more.  Not sure he's Top 30 worthy or not. 

[Stradling]

I know nothing about him but the Braves gave him $1 million and I read he had a decent pro debut. 

[vladdy#27]

Just looking at the numbers 27 BB versus 26 K in just over 200 plate appearance is pretty impressive from a 17 year old in his first taste of pro ball. Obviously he needs to hit more, and for power. At 6 feet and only 160lbs he has a frame that he can definitely add some weight to, right now he makes Dee Gordon look fat.

He at least has two tools though, defense and patience. He’s young so he has time to develop 

[VariousCrap]

 

Jeff Fletcher‏Verified account @JeffFletcherOCR 26m26 minutes ago

More

Confirmed #Angels have also signed SS Livan Soto, another of the prospects the Braves lost. He gets $850K. Again, can use next year’s money so doesn’t take away from Ohtani funds. @JesseSanchezMLB had it first.

 

[vladdy#27]

Also if we fail to sign Ohtani presumably we could use our international money from this year on Soto. And would still have around $500k left. 

[totdprods]

We suddenly have infield prospect depth. We were pretty barren there. Not much still and very far away, but nice seeing some growth elsewhere.

[Blarg]

This is like fourth round draft pick money. I really like what Eppler is doing right now, the money spent is in line with the expectation of success. 

[totdprods]

Fantastic offseason so far. It feels like Eppler is envisioning and executing a plan far grander and more comprehensive than before, or at the very least, the prior efforts are starting to culminate into a really solid org top to bottom with a real process taking root. 

[Jeff Fletcher]

28 minutes ago, vladdy#27 said:

Also if we fail to sign Ohtani presumably we could use our international money from this year on Soto. And would still have around $500k left. 

I honestly am not sure how this works. I will check in the coming days. I don’t know if you can spend the money and then decide which pool is coming out of later. In Maitan’s case, there was no question because he got more than the amount in the 17-18 pool. I don’t know where Soto goes, but I suspect you have to declare at the time you sign him which pool, which means it has to be next year while they’re still alive for Ohtani. 

[totdprods]

@Jeff Fletcher, do we know what the Angels pool for next year was or is ar now?

[ettin]

2 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

I honestly am not sure how this works. I will check in the coming days. I don’t know if you can spend the money and then decide which pool is coming out of later. In Maitan’s case, there was no question because he got more than the amount in the 17-18 pool. I don’t know where Soto goes, but I suspect you have to declare at the time you sign him which pool, which means it has to be next year while they’re still alive for Ohtani. 

It seems pretty clear from the MLBTradeRumors (Jonathan Mayo's article) link: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/11/process-for-signing-prospects-stripped-from-braves.html

" 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. It appears the Angels took advantage of the special stipulation, using their 2018-19 international bonus pool money to offer Maitan more than the $1,315,000 remaining in their 2017-18 international bonus pool."

Sounds like they can only choose one pool or the other in regard to the Braves prospects. However getting clarity on this Jeff would be fantastic!

[CanadianHalo]

43 minutes ago, vladdy#27 said:

At 6 feet and only 160lbs he has a frame that he can definitely add some weight to, right now he makes Dee Gordon look fat.

Maybe the Angels can bunk him with Maitan, kid will be looking like Trout in no time

[Jeff Fletcher]

13 minutes ago, ettin said:

It seems pretty clear from the MLBTradeRumors (Jonathan Mayo's article) link: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/11/process-for-signing-prospects-stripped-from-braves.html

" 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. It appears the Angels took advantage of the special stipulation, using their 2018-19 international bonus pool money to offer Maitan more than the $1,315,000 remaining in their 2017-18 international bonus pool."

Sounds like they can only choose one pool or the other in regard to the Braves prospects. However getting clarity on this Jeff would be fantastic!

The question is when do they have to choose. It’s possible that they aren’t even going to sign Soto for a while, after his physical, and in that case they may already have missed on Ohtani. That would allow them to put the $850k on this year’s account and still have it next year. If he’s officially inked before Ohtani is settled, they have to use next year’s.

[Jeff Fletcher]

19 minutes ago, totdprods said:

@Jeff Fletcher, do we know what the Angels pool for next year was or is ar now?

Well, as my story said......

It starts at $4.75M but it can go down if they sign a qualifying offer FA. I think there’s also some way that unused money gets spread around and may increase your pool. In any case, it won’t be set till later. But it’ll generally be $4-4.75M.

[ettin]

1 minute ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

The question is when do they have to choose. It’s possible that they aren’t even going to sign Soto for a while, after his physical, and in that case they may already have missed on Ohtani. That would allow them to put the $850k on this year’s account and still have it next year. If he’s officially inked before Ohtani is settled, they have to use next year’s.

I guess if you assume that if they fail to sign Ohtani and decide to acquire enough additional bonus pool money to cover both Maitan and Soto this year I guess that is a possibility in terms of the timing of when they have to choose.

However that is all dependent on whether they have to decide at the time of announcement or the time of actual signing? As it stands currently that $2.2M has to come from next off-season.

Curious minds want to know Jeff!!!!

[totdprods]

7 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Well, as my story said......

It starts at $4.75M but it can go down if they sign a qualifying offer FA. I think there’s also some way that unused money gets spread around and may increase your pool. In any case, it won’t be set till later. But it’ll generally be $4-4.75M.

Thanks Jeff somehow I didn't catch that earlier. So much going on!

[Jeff Fletcher]

11 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

The question is when do they have to choose. It’s possible that they aren’t even going to sign Soto for a while, after his physical, and in that case they may already have missed on Ohtani. That would allow them to put the $850k on this year’s account and still have it next year. If he’s officially inked before Ohtani is settled, they have to use next year’s.

Ok I just got a text back. MLB is not likely to let the Angels manipulate it by waiting on Soto to see what happens with Ohtani. That means Soto has to go on their 18-19 pool. 

[Second Base]

I like how aggressive the Angels are being with these moves. For all we know, Eppler may see the international talent coming available next year and is either not impressed or doesn't feel we're in play for these players and as result is spending next year's money on upside talent that has come available that we otherwise wouldn't be in play for.

Put it like this...what sort of player would we need to "sell" in order to acquire pieces for the future like Maitan and Soto? 

Its a huge haul, and it has cost us no more than 3 million dollars, which is a fraction of what many good players make on a yearly basis.

Solid drafts, acquiring prospects via trade, making a splash with the Bahamian prospects, and using these circumstances to land good prospects. Eppler has really done an amazing job of building the farm depth in a very short amount of time.

[ettin]

Don't forget that the Angels can add, via trade, up to 75% of their base pool money next year to help cover the money they just dedicated to Maitan and Soto. It could bring them back up close to whatever the base money turns out to be in the 2018-2019 bonus pool.