Heralded prospect Yoan Moncada to make pro debut with Greenville Drive
Yoan Moncada, the Cuban teen the Boston Red Sox spent $63 million to sign two months ago, officially launches his professional career in Greenville Monday night
The Red Sox on Sunday announced Moncada, 19, has been assigned to the Drive and would be in the starting lineup Monday when Greenville hosts the Lexington Legends at Fluor Field.
His appearance almost certainly will be the most-watched event in Drive history, possibly drawing a record crowd as well as unparalleled national media.
Also in attendance will be MLB Authentication, the wing of Major League Baseball that will collect and later offer for sale Moncada’s hat, jersey, bats, the baseballs he hits on the field and even the bases and infield dirt he displaces with his cleats.
The reason for the unprecedented attention is the way Moncada’s career has developed.
His immense talent first caught the attention of MLB teams in 2010, when as a 15-year-old he excelled in an international competition for a Cuban junior team in Mexico. The scouting reports continued to glow during the next three years until in December 2013, when he left Cuba in hopes of pursuing a professional career.
He surfaced the next summer in Guatemala and held workouts for scouts as he awaited clearance from Major League Baseball to negotiate a contract with one of its teams. Listed at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds — built like a safety in football — he showed extraordinary bat speed, and according to media reports at the time, scouts rated his skills above major league average for hitting, power, running and throwing and as average for fielding.
“If he were eligible for the 2015 draft, Moncada would be a strong contender to go No. 1 overall,” wrote longtime draft analyst Jim Callis of mlbpipeline.com, an MLB-affiliated website devoted to baseball prospects.
MLB cleared Moncada to sign on Feb. 4, and on March 12, the Red Sox announced they had landed Moncada for a $31.5 million, almost quadrupling the previous record given to an international amateur player younger than 23 — $8.25 to pitcher Yoan Lopez by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
And that was only half of what the Red Sox spent. MLB teams are assigned international bonus pools, and teams that exceed their assignment pay a 100 percent penalty, meaning Boston spent $63 million to acquire Moncada. Also, the Red Sox are now limited to spending no more than $300,000 on an international amateur in 2015-16 and 2016-17, meaning they likely will be unable to bid on any top prospects for the next two years.
Moncada is expected to arrive in Greenville Monday morning or early afternoon and will report directly to Fluor Field, according to Eric Jarinko, the Drive general manager. Jarinko said Moncada will participate in batting practice around 5 p.m. and start at second base wearing jersey No. 24.
Since signing, Moncada has been working out and playing in exhibition games at the team’s minor league complex in Fort Myers, Florida.
The largest crowd for a Drive game at Fluor Field is 7,179 on July 2, 2014, according to Jarinko. Monday’s game already has a special promotion attached. It is a Reading All-Stars Night, and the Drive have issued vouchers for free tickets to students in Greenville County middle schools and Anderson District 1 and Spartanburg District 2 schools who have completed their Reading All-Stars program.
“There are still some great seats available,” Jarinko said.
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