The Arizona Diamondbacks have made history. Ben Badler of Baseball America tweeted out that the Diamondbacks have signed Cuban pitching prospect Yoan Lopez to a deal.
New at Baseball America: Diamondbacks agree to sign Cuban pitcher Yoan Lopez for $8.25 million http://t.co/iES8gk102N
— Ben Badler (@BenBadler) January 13, 2015
The deal marks the record for the largest international signing, edging out the Los Angeles Angels who signed Cuban infielder Roberto Baldoquin a few weeks back to an $8 million dollar tag. It is an interesting move for the new Diamondbacks regime. The MLB’s worst team last season, Arizona was set up with the largest international signing pool. This move, however, limits the moves they can now make. The Diamondbacks will be taxed 100 percent on the overage of the allotted international pool limit and can’t sign anyone for over $300,000 over the next two periods of international signings. Clearly, new GM Dave Stewart and fellow newcomer Tony LaRussa, the Chief Baseball Officer, like what they see.
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But, what is it that they see? Who is Yoan Lopez? We know he’s the most recent Cuban defector to have big teams with big wallets making a mad dash after him. The Yankees, Dodgers and Padres were all rumored to be in the hunt, so Lopez must be a special talent worth losing so much.
Lopez is the 21-year old righty who defected to the Dominican Republic last season. During his age-18 season in Cuba’s Serie Nacional, he showed his one minor problem: he struggles with consistency and control. The 6 foot 3 inch (listed as 6’4” on some publications) and 190 pound flamethrower walked 15 more batters than he struck out in his debut season. His second season saw an improvement, but more of the same. Lopez walked 63 batters while striking out 58 over 104 innings. It is promising to note that he did lower his ERA from 4.33 in his rookie year to 3.61 in his sophomore season, all while making four more starts.
Lopez turned 20 and made 7 starts in the 53rd (and his final) season in the Serie Nacional. He struck out a considerable amount more than he walked for the first time in his career (28:11). He lowered his ERA (3.12) for the second consecutive season. As he ages, he seems to be putting it together.
The scouting report at Amazin Avenue indicates that the young Cuban hurler has a five pitch arsenal, with a mid-90s fastball as his signature pitch. He also has a cutter, a curve, a slider and a change-up, but still struggles with commanding his other pitches. He has reportedly been specifically working on his mechanics in his time spent in the Dominican awaiting to see which big league team was going to open the bank on his services. Badler mentioned that is has appeared that Lopez may have bulked up a bit, which could certainly help with his power and speed on that fastball.
Clearly, Lopez’s talent is still raw. The advantage he has is that, despite being just 21 years of age, he has three years of experience in a league that has produced some memorable hard-hitting and talented pitching rookies the past few seasons, with reigning MLB Rookie of the Year Jose Abreu coming to mind. Lopez is projected to begin the year in Single-A ball for the Diamondbacks, but if he can harness his ability and control, expect to see him rising quite quickly in 2015.