Freddy Valdez

Baseball America released the Bonus Pools for each team’s International Free Agent budget on Wednesday night. Every year on July 2nd, Teams are allotted a bonus pool that allows them to spend money on free agents who they have scouted for the last year, and sign them for what they deemed was appropriate for their talents.

Major League Baseball appropriates funds to each team to spend on these free agents. As of July 2nd, 2017, Major League Franchises were subject to a hard cap to their pool, and only $10,000 signing bonuses and below counted against the cap. However, each team was allowed to trade for at least 75% more in cap space by another team that is not signing IFA’s.

This year, the Mets have a $4,983,500 cap, and they can trade for up to $8,721,125 as their limit for the signing period. The period extends to June 15, 2019.

The Mets are currently the front runners to sign Venezuelan catcher Francisco Alvarez and Dominican outfielder Freddy Valdez.

Francisco Alvarez is the second best catcher on the market. Known for his in-game hitting and plus power, Alvarez has some promising potential at the dish. As a stocky-bodied player, he is most suited for catcher and features an above-average arm, but needs refinement on his receiving. The bonus information is unknown for Alvarez due to teams not reporting because of risk of kidnapping in Venezuela.

Freddy Valdez is a tall powerful outfielder. He has a long, right-handed swing and looks to be a power-over-hit profile for now. He’s a below-average runner, but has a plus arm and will likely stick in right field. The rumored price tag for his services is around $1.5 million.

Both are eligible to sign on July 2nd, 2018.