{"id":246587,"date":"2026-01-19T07:42:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/?p=246587"},"modified":"2026-01-19T09:28:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:28:51","slug":"money-lots-and-lots-of-money-goes-to-young-baseball-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/2026\/01\/19\/money-lots-and-lots-of-money-goes-to-young-baseball-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"Money, lots and lots of money, goes to young baseball talent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"335\" src=\"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Wandy-Asigen-2-Listin-Diario.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-246633\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Wandy-Asigen-2-Listin-Diario.png 600w, https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Wandy-Asigen-2-Listin-Diario-300x168.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption>Wandy Asigen \/ Listin Diario<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As of Thursday, 15 January 2026, Major League Baseball teams were allowed to sign young talent. The rules are very simple: the person must be 16 years of age at signing and reach 17 years of age by the following 1st of September and registered with Major League Baseball (MLB) by 1 November. There are also requirements regarding the proper identification, education and training history of the prospect. The deals are not final until the player selected and signed passes a team physical exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All that said, last Thursday was a bonanza for young Dominican talent. According to MLB Pipeline, Wandy Asigen, from Monte Llano in Puerto Plata was the second-highest player signed at US$3.8 million. Previously, Asigen had an oral agreement with the New York Yankees, but when the international player director left the Yankees, the NY Mets entered the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another Dominican talent that was listed as Top 10 in big contracts was the son of former pitcher Jesus Colome from San Pedro de Macoris, who reportedly signed for US$4.0 million from the Oakland Athletics. He was joined by the nephew of Hall-of-Famer Vladimir Guerrero, Wilton Guerrero Jr., who was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates for US$1.95 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The really impressive news is that of the Top 50 players signed, there were 34 Dominican. There were 53 seven-digit contracts and 44 contracts of between US$500,000 and US$900,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The total amount that MLB teams set forth to sign Dominican talent amounted to US$55,149,000 (Or RD$3.5 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also interesting, it the fact that a lot of the last name have recognition since Rijo (US$2.2 million), Fermin (US$2.1 million), and Horton (US$2.0 million) are names well-recognized in Dominican sports circles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more in Spanish:<br><a href=\"https:\/\/listindiario.com\/el-deporte\/beisbol\/20260115\/wandy-asigen-esfuerzos-cumplir-primer-gran-paso_890001.html\">Listin Diario <\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/listindiario.com\/el-deporte\/beisbol\/20260115\/llueven-millones-wandy-asigen-firma-3-9_889968.html\">Listin Diario <\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.diariolibre.com\/deportes\/beisbol\/2026\/01\/15\/johenssy-colome-recibe-bono-de-us4-millones-mayor-para-dominicano\/3405576\">Diario Libre <\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.diariolibre.com\/deportes\/beisbol\/2026\/01\/13\/dominicanos-recibiran-la-mayor-tajada-de-us208-millones-en-firmas\/3402418\">Diario Libre <\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.elcaribe.com.do\/deportes\/beisbol\/grandes-ligas\/prospectos-criollos-reciben-de-equipos-de-gl-us55-millones\/\">El Caribe <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>19 January 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As of Thursday, 15 January 2026, Major League Baseball teams were allowed to sign young talent. The rules are very simple: the person must be 16 years of age at signing and reach 17 years of age by the following 1st of September and registered with Major League Baseball (MLB) by 1 November. There are &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/2026\/01\/19\/money-lots-and-lots-of-money-goes-to-young-baseball-talent\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[340,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246587"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246634,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246587\/revisions\/246634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}