Here is a list and a little bit about some of them.
On January 15 the International Signing Period for Major League Baseball in 2025 opened. Teams are now able to sign players from outside the United States and Puerto Rico and Canada that are over the age of 16 years old. These players are paid from bonus pools, which are awarded based on the team’s market size and performance during the previous season. This year the St. Louis Cardinals were allocated a bonus pool of $5,646,200. Here are all the players the Cardinals have signed so far:
There are a few players of note from this group, the most obvious maybe being Royelny Strop. He is currently playing centerfield, but projects to move over to left or right long term. At just 16 years old he already 6’1” and 178 lbs. and experts expect him to grow even more, with more potential for power and offensive upside to go along with what are already considered strong “bat-to-ball ability”. Also, he is former MLB reliever Pedro Strop’s son. MLB pipeline ranked Strop 28 in their top 50 International Prospects.
Kenly Hunter is considered one of the top prospects from Nicaragua in this year’s international class. He currently plays centerfield and scouts believe he could stay at the position. He has strong overall athletic ability and good “bat-to-ball skills”.
Jaun Rujano has stood out to prospect experts for his power potential and the ability to drive the ball for extra-base hits. That bat might not be entirely there, but the belief is that Rujano has potential as a power hitter. He has a strong arm, but his size — already 6’3” and 185 lbs. at 17-years-old — might result in him moving off catcher.
There are two shortstops among the group that are promising defensively in Miguel Hernández and Yeferson Portolatin. Hernández is reportedly smooth at the position with quick reflexes. Portolatin is likely the better rounded of the two, with quick hands and good range as well as a solid approach at the plate. He can play both shortstop and second base and is a switch hitter.
That is sort of all I could find for now. An interesting thing about reading through these scouting reports for players that are so young is that you find a lot of the same key phrases; “potential to bulk up”, “bat-to-ball ability”, “smooth defense”, etc. It makes me wonder if these are attributes that are more highly sought after and so it is sampling bias or do scouts just like what they see and they just kind of… come up with something to write? Maybe a little bit of a combination of the two.
However the Cardinals are making these signing decisions, they have been pretty successful in their evaluations in the past. Carlos Martínez, Fernado Salas, and So Taguchi were signed during the International Signing Period and were valuable contributors to very good teams. Oscar Taveras of the Dominican Republic was also signed using the International Bonus Pool and was a widely heralded prospect. As with most prospect groups, there is some exciting potential in this one. I guess we will check back in, oh, five years and see how it all turned out! Happy Sunday!