Photo: Courtesy metsblog.com
After months of discussion and varying degrees of interest, Cuban baseball stud Yoan Moncada has officially become an MLB free agent, and is now completely free to sign with any baseball organization. Concerns over Cuba-United States relations have been cleared, and now, the bidding wars will commence for the 19-year old multi-talented player.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo! sports reported the news this afternoon, and discussed the rule changes. The reason for Moncada's immediate acceptance into free agency rests in this quote from Passan's piece:
Players who present sworn affidavits to Major League Baseball stating they are residents of another country, have no intention of returning to Cuba and are not Cuban government officials can sign with major league teams immediately, sources said.
He goes on to point out that the "favorites" for Moncada, the possible franchise-changing player, still remain to be the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Los Angeles Dodgers. With Moncada's acceptance into the league coming a bit sooner than expected, teams like the Red Sox and Yankees who were previously up against the July 2nd signing deadline, now have a longer period to work out a deal.
On Twitter, Passan did add that, now that Moncada is a complete free agent, there will be an increase in interested teams. We will also see the rise of the real contenders for Moncada's services.
Plenty of other teams are in, and now that he is a free agent, the contract offers will separate presumed favorites from the on-paper ones.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 3, 2015
Click here to read up on Moncada's potential in the major leagues, his potential fit with the Philadelphia Phillies, and what some experts have said about what the Cuban standout could become on US soil.
Andrew Gillen, Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com
