Phillies Sign Luis Encarnacion

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Luis Encarnacion turned 16 today and the Philllies immediately signed him to an amateur contract with a $1 million signing bonus.  Rather than have me paraphrase it, here is Baseball America’s report on the signing http://www.baseballamerica.com/international/phillies-sign-no-4-international-prospect-luis-encarnacion/.

Encarnacion will be limited in his defensive profile, but if he develops at least a plus hit tool and plus power, the position will not matter.  BA comps him to Allen Craig and Billy Butler.  It is tough to rank Encarnacion on any Phillies prospect lists until people see him outside of the showcase events.  If the Phillies follow past precedent they will bring him stateside for Florida Instructional League before starting him in the GCL in 2014.

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About Matt Winkelman

Matt is originally from Mt. Holly, NJ, but after a 4 year side track to Cleveland for college he now resides in Madison, WI. His work has previously appeared on Phuture Phillies and The Good Phight. You can read his work at Phillies Minor Thoughts

89 thoughts on “Phillies Sign Luis Encarnacion”

  2. I’m excited by this signing. A power bat to dream on.

    That said, BA mentions an eventual move to LF or 1B. If he has the arm to play 3B, why wouldn’t right be an option?

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    1. I would say range and athleticism, but then I remembered the Phillies played Ruf in RF, so who knows.

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    2. I’m excited too Mike. Love the signing. Tocci and Pujols have been two of my favorites players passing through the GCL. Looking forward to seeing Encarnacion next

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            1. Alec – I saw him hit more than one on the barrel that an outfielder was able to track down. Overall though, looks a bit over matched at the plate. Hoping he could get his fair share of hits down the stretch run. He’s looked comfortable behind the plate defensively. His arm certainly plays.

              Keep in mind that I’ve only seen a small sample of the small sample. Crawford and Pujols have really stood out for me so far and I’ve been mindful of Oberto ever since brad started pumping him relentlessly here. : ) . Herlis is the other guy I want to get a closer look at. Perhaps next week

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            2. I know it is a very SSS look that you got, but that info is more then I would receive anywhere else. Thanks

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  3. A good sign. Hopefully we can add another big time Latin player. There are still a few remaining who could be impact players at some point down the line, unless they are already ‘promised’ to other MLB clubs….Bryan Lizardo, Maylety Perez, Anderson Franco, Emmanuel DeJesus, Yimmy Alonzo, Michael DeLeon, Nic Figueroa and Wasner Peguero.

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    1. Correction….cross half those names off, ie Perez, DeLeon and others…they have already signed apparently with the regular big LA spenders, like the Rangers et al.

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  5. Your 2019 Phillies:

    1 Tocci CF
    2 Crawford SS
    3 Encarnacion 1B
    4 D Brown RF
    5 Pujols LF
    6 Asche 3B
    7 Lino C
    8 Quinn 2B
    9 Lannan P

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      1. The part he left out is the Phillies allowing Lannan to re-sign elsewhere in 2014 and then trading Franco and Biddle to get Lannan and Nate Schierholz back for a pennant run in 2015. So efficient!

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          1. It was a joke but also the realization that with the trades of Happ, Worley, May, Cosart, Bonilla, Drabek, Carasco, etc and the injuries to Morgan, Watson, etc and the control issues of Biddle, Martin, and others, there is not much hope in the system for starting pitchers going forward.

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            1. What’s the combined WAR of that list of traded pitchers? Below 0, right?

              Again, it’s a failure of scouting and development, not of “too many trades.” By and large, they traded the right guys at the right time. (May–who they sold low on–and Colvin are probably the exceptions.)

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            2. You jumped forward to a conclusion on my thinking – I said “hope in the system”. It would be hard to argue that if some of those names were with the organization, that we wouldn’t all be looking at our future pitching hopes a little better.

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            5. Rich, Trevor May is still in AA and has shown no improvement his second time around. I would say the Phillies sold high on him also.

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            6. developing good pitching is a slow process, , I think you just have to be patience and good pitching will surface.try to stay on an even keel:)

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        1. Well, if he’s not an everyday player, he’s not in the Majors. Teams don’t tend to keep backups who can only play one position (lots of guys can play First, so that isn’t to his benefit).

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        2. Wait … so you’re saying (I’m going to assume this is the same anon who posted the above lineup, since the lack of a handle gives me no other option) that there is a greater likelihood of Roman Quinn playing 2B every day than Franco playing 3B? I would loooooove to hear the logic behind that one.

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  6. I’m happy they signed this guy, but just because he got a million bucks doesn’t mean he’s gonna be any good. It’s good that the phils are keeping the talent rolling in. That’s really what they have to do just keep bringing in talent wether it’s the draft, int fa signing, trades what ever. Just writing the biggest check doesnt always mean your getting the best guy. Any body remember Boston paying a Japanese team like 50mil just to be able to talk to dice-k?

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    2. Japan is non-analagous to this situation. Japan has smaller ballparks and different baseballs with more prominent stitching. The Stitching allows someone like Dice-K to get more movement on the ball and the smaller park allowed Matsui to hit for more SLG.

      This is more comparable to a draft pick than to a Japanese player of any sort.

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  7. Man…an international draft is long overdue. Even if it is one round of 30 slots would go a long way to prospect equity.

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    1. What’s prospect equity, and why would we want it? I’m a Phillies fan–I want this organization to have all the prospects.

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      1. Well we all do, but evidently 29 other teams want the same, and a few others are willing toi gamble more George Washingtons on it to ensure they hedge all their bets and get the best of the crop. Perhaps you do not realize, but when it comes to impact players from LA that the Philies signed over the last 20/25 years they are not too high on the leader-board. The draft is something I would think they, more then most , would want. Now the Rangers, Yankees, bosox, and afew others would probably like it to go back to pre-2012 days…an open market.

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        1. I don’t think anyone on this site doesn’t realize that.

          I’m fine with the current system, because I think it incentivizes smart scouting. If the Rangers want to blow 10 million dollars on Latin American kids rather than on crappy middle relievers, good on them. But you still have to pick the right ones; all the money in the world won’t keep Michael Ynoa’s arm attached to his body.

          The trouble with the draft is it removes a major incentive for teams to invest in training young kids in Latin America to play baseball. Those countries don’t have the same resources and infrastructure as the U.S., which is why the Phillies don’t need to open up an academy in South Jersey to teach pick-off moves to tweens. (Though in the case of one particular South Jersey player, it might have been the investment.)

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          1. Thats why I am hoping the MLB only does a limited draft for the LA market. Then the remaining non-drafted kids can be under an open market

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            1. Maybe, but I’m not sure how it solves the problem, if there is a problem. The Cubs and Rangers can still spend a ton of money internationally and get superior talent; why should we reward the Orioles for not doing their due diligence in LA?

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          2. “If the Rangers want to blow 10 million dollars on Latin American kids ”

            Well, technically they can’t do that. There’s no draft, but there is a pool of money teams can’t exceed.

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    2. If there was an International Draft the chances are pretty good the Phillies would not have been able to draft this kid because he would have been selected before their pick (they picked 15th the MLB draft and would likely have same order in an International Draft).

      It’s one of the reasons why many suggest teams should ignore their bonus pool penalties and the year before a draft comes into place spend a ton of money on multiple prospects. If you lose your 1st round pick and you’re picking 15th+ for signing multiple top-20 prospects the year before the draft it’s a better trade-off.

      I think MLB should either put International Players into the draft pool (NHL and NBA does it although MLB would have an age difference obviously since International Players can be signed 2 years earlier than North American players obtain draft eligibility… It’s why some sons of former MLB players who grew up in the US moved outside the US a year or two prior to their 16th birthdays in order to become international FAs)

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  8. ” It is tough to rank Encarnacion on any Phillies prospect lists until people see him…”
    Tocci was top 12 by BA before playing in the GCL, after receiving a 775k bonus. Somewhere in the top 12 seems a good starting point. As someone said yesterday, there is a clear top tier of 3 players (Biddle, Franco and Crawford), and a clear 2nd tier of 3 players (I would say 4 players: Quinn, Tocci, Morgan and S Watson). After that, Encarnacion can be considered with any of the rest.

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    2. Tocci was not ranked by BA coming into 2012. He was ranked #10 after his GCL season last year

      Tocci came over to the states for Florida Instructional Leagues after signing. This is that look I am talking about. It is the time where scouts get to see him in “game” action and not just hitting BP and fielding drills. Come this winter we will have much better information. Given the list I put out yesterday I would slot him in at #15 right behind Jose Pujols, giving the edge right now to the guy with a year of experience.

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      1. I apologize. He was ranked #13 by Baseball Prospectus (not BA) before playing in the GCL.

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  9. On another board someone posted that the Phillies might be interested in Anderson Franco who turns 16 near the end of the month. Wonder if he is any relation to Maikel. Yet another 3B though. We are getting pretty crowded there. Ideally we’d spend some money on pitching with the international money we have left ($900K+).

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    1. Phillies don’t seem to have much luck with six figure bonuses given to international amateur pitchers.

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      1. Robonson Tejeda, Carlos Carraso, and Carlos Silva all made MLB. Our track record with high dollar pitching is at least as good as our track record with high dollar position players.

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  11. Anderson Franco has been linked to the Nats. They reportedly have been following him since he was 12-13 years old.

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  12. I am going to show my ignorance to the process, but what happens next? He will get on a plane over the coming week or 2 (?), and will go to Clearwater? Would he then get acclimated, and start to work out at the Clearwater complex?

    I see that you speculate that he will participate in the Florida Instructional League. That is a September / October ‘season’, right? Would he play along with similar players from other organizations, or other very young draftees who were maybe injured and were limited in summer action?

    If all goes well, what would a 16 year old do next year? Extended spring training for most of the 2014 season, and then a bit of Gulf Coast League action? And, assuming all is well, then off to Lakewood? I guess this would follow the Tocci model, right?

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    1. Given that there are notes that scouts love the makeup and work ethic I think that is a fairly reasonable plan. The only step I would throw in is that they will likely have him at their Dominican complex for a couple of weeks before bringing him stateside. He is also likely to play the entire GCL season.

      As for the FIL he will likely play against other complex/short season ball type players as well as injured players and those that the organization wants to work on something specifically with (adding a new pitch, feel for a new position).

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  13. It still boils down to scouting. If anyone watched the Cardinals phenom last night Carlos Martinez you heard the story about the Red Sox signing him for $160K. That contract was voided because he used a wrong name. He was banned for a year from signing. Fast forward a year and the Cards come in with an offer of $1.5 mil

    Do you think Boston was pissed…

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    1. Well it was good scouting by the Red Sox, but during that year where he couldn’t sign, his fastball ticked up a lot

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  14. Any update on Gonzales or should we just assume that the deal fell through and he’ll go elsewhere?

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  15. Good deal on the Encarnacion signing. That’s the core of the 2013 international season for us right there. Not a 3B, but we do need a 1B/LF of the future. We really need a big bat and he could be it.

    Sounds more and more like Gonzales won’t happen. I’m glad the Phillies made the effort. Perhaps a revised contract that adds a year and keeps the total $$ unchanged, so he can get healthy in that year — TJ?

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    1. Great video Tom. Thanks for sharing. Certainly raw defensively (looks like a pitcher winding up when throwing to first) but looks comfortable as a hitter. 16 yrs old! Very excited

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    2. Relax, he’s 16 on a crappy field and probably was very nervous. He looks athletic enough to have the ability to become a decent fielder.

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      1. I agree there certainly is plenty of time to fix his footwork, etc but he’s definitely going to put on some weight over the next couple of years which will make that improvement much more difficult

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    3. no wonder he hits for so much power, his lower body is ENORMOUS, especially considering he’s 16.

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      1. I’ve seen him listed as 6’3, 195 Lbs. Phillies like ’em big. The other guy they signed this year for 230K, Bryan Martelo, is 6’3, 190lbs.

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  18. I hope this becomes a yearly occurrence. If the Phillies want to continue being talked about in the same breathe as the Red Sox, Rangers and all they need to make signings like this. If you strive to never draft in the top half of the draft then you need to go out and some of the top available talent from the international market. Just think of it as major cost savings…spend a bit more up front on development and later on you will have control over a player entering his prime at a major discount. It’s a simple concept. If we are spending 100 MM+ on our major league roster why is a million here and there in the draft and international market such a negative? It’s taken the Phillies too long to wake up from their lack of spending in the draft.

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    1. The Phillies didn’t wake up. MLB made the rest of baseball play by the same rules the Phillies had enforced on themselves. The Phillies treated the old Selig ‘suggested slot’ system for drafts like it was set in stone when there were no penalties with it. The Phillies also didn’t get involved with top International Amateur FA’s because they didn’t believe the dollar amounts were regulated well enough.

      Now the new CBA makes the slots more defined and associated a penalty and it also puts a ‘cap’ on International Amateur spending which has lowered down the cost of signing these players.

      If there was no bonus pool Encarnacion probably would signed for $2m to $2.5m under the old system.

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      1. They actually made a philosophical change about 3 years ago. They moved to actually spending on big names, it was an acknowledgement by the front office and pushed by Sal Agostinelli that they needed to bring in more talent. Since then they have signed Franco, Vargas, Tocci, Pujols, Grullon, and Encarnacion to large contracts (and many others). It wasn’t a jump up to level of some of the top teams but it was a solid step forward in talent acquisition.

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        1. They did try to go big with the two Korean pitchers in the late-90s for a million apiece or so. Then there was Josue Perez and Carlos Rodriguez. Obviuosly, they all failed to materialize into major league players. But they paid somewhere around $4M total for those four players almost 15 years ago..

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      2. Yeah, but my point is that they can’t be a big market club with a small market mentality. Most champions are built from the inside. To do that, when you aren’t drafting high every year; you have to take a chance. And, heck, even some small market teams who do draft near the top almost every year know that it’s okay to spend on prospects. They might fail, but spending in FA and locking up older players for big dollars does your club a disservice. Look at the Cardinals. The market will always dictate how much a player is worth. The Phillies and their scouts need to do better.

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    2. The Red Sox and Rangers get way to much credit. The Rangers haven’t won anything and from 07-12 the Sox and the Phillies both have a WS title and the Phillies won 20 more regular season games in that same period.

      These other systems that get fawned all over have the same flaws or flaws in other areas of their organization.

      I mean really let’s give the Giants some respect they hold 2/3 last WS titles.

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      1. I’m speaking strictly about their farm systems and their competitiveness almost every year. I want the Phillies organization to be great from top to bottom. I’m not picking and choosing. If we see a flaw in a player’s game we want them to work at fixing it. We don’t want him to just sit on his laurels and all himself to be the same player he was when he made his major league debut.

        The Phillies obviously have had a weakness in their farm system when they haven’t had high first round picks like Chase, Cole and Jimmy. They’ve done well with others in later rounds and I’m not discounting that they’ve traded away a lot of players recently that could be helping them now. All I’m saying is that if it’s so easy to overspend on a Raul Ibanez when you’re bidding against yourself early in the market or give Papelbom that much per year for a closer then why not see the same benefit in spending an extra million or so on a talent that could save you from having to do that in the future. Or at least put you in a good place to trade for someone still under control like a Stanton. We need pieces and you will only win in this game if you have talent. There are only so many ways to GET talent and the Phillies have been horribly deficient in going into the international market and grabbing talent when other clubs so often do.

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        1. I think the simple answer is those players were quantifiable. Ibanez was a 3/yr sign hardly earth shattering $ figures and gave you 70 HRs and 260 RBIs. Signed a year after they won a WS so they clearly were operating in a window to win another championship.

          Papelbon’s signing came a year after they led the majors in wins (102) again clearly operating in window to garner another title. If they didn’t spend the money there would be those that whine they were to cheap to go out and get a closer.

          Just saying this all hail the Red Sox who last 69 games last year and the Ranger’s who got drubbed by the A’s makes no sense to me. Again spending the most doesn’t equate to championships whether its on your MLB roster or LA signings.

          Do some homework and look around the league and the vast number of bonehead moves every team has on their books. And I say this in a very friendly jovial manner. We get grass is greener complex around here way to often.

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          1. DMAR, I agree with you in that the Red Sox caught a huge break with the LA Dodgers deal last year where they dumped all the bad salaries. No one else is going to do the same again.

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      2. Who is in better shape, dont think your argument holds water, they won two titles in 13 years have better prospects, better team. great farm systems. and we have 2 titles in 130 years.

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    2. They now do extensive background checks on the top players up to a year in advance. He has a ton of lower body muscle but he looks young from the way he moves to the unevenness of the muscle mass.

      In other words, it has been checked thoroughly and yes he looks young.

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  20. I have never understood why a team would take back 20M or more in a deal to get better prospects, but not spend a fraction of that to get better prospects to begin with.

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  21. So the Sox sign both Devers and Emmanuel DeJesus today. The rich get richer. I wonder if any of the MLB Top 30 are left now!

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  22. With the international signing pool, is it a use it or lose it situation or can money be carried over to the next season?

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    2. You have from July 2nd to June 15th of the next year to use your bonus pool and then it expires. You’re still only able to sign players who were are 16 by August 31st. But sometimes you see teams sign those players in the next calendar year. This happens more frequently with pitchers because you see a pitcher who’s velocity has increased and wasn’t considered worth the money during the summer (sometimes even a year or two after they turned 16)

      This year the Rangers spent almost $1.6m in June to use up the rest of their 2012 bonus pool on two pitchers.

      The Phillies have in the past signed players during the winter. Domingo Santana was signed at the end of December and Maikel Franco was signed in January.

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      1. They also signed Miguel Nunez and Franklyn Vargas to nice bonuses, in the winter months after their 16th birthday.

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  23. Congrats on this signing. Encarnacion winds up in LF or 1b. My “kingdom” for a solid, power laden right handed hitter in the middle of the lineup.

    If Franco gets back on his temporarily stalled train and become eligible for entry into the lineup, it would be great if he could fill that need while playing 1b. He would be surrounded by Brown, Asche, and Utley’s final year if Franco joins the lineup in late ’14 and ’15.

    Should that work out, Encarncion would be best suited for LF. Wow…if it worked out, that would be TWO righties with power in the lineup–better balance there.

    Now, if Howard would only retire….not with $25 mil on the table/year.

    Fun to watch the team begin to make serious entry into the Int Mkt with big bucks. Puig gone. Any more out there like him? Will we be a player………..?

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    1. Puig was kind of a freak in Cuba in that he wasn’t that hyped because he was still very young and didn’t play. His first full year in the Cuban league came when he was 19/20 and he hit 17 HR’s. Then he played in some tournaments and perior to the following season he got caught shoplifting at a tournament he was at. He was then suspended for the 2010-2011 season. So nobody got to really see just how good Puig could be. These other Cubans who came over played 3/4/5 years in the Cuban League. Puig had 1 full season in the league and came over at 21.

      That was the last season Yoenis Cespedes played in Cuba before defecting. Cespedes hit 33 HR’s and set a Cuban league record. He was outdone by Jose Abreu who is a year younger than Cespedes and equaled his HR total (33), but did it in 26 fewer games putting up an insane 453/.597/.986/1.583 slash. Jose Dariel Abreu is considered the best player outside outside of MLB jurisdiction.

      That same year another Cuban who’s the same age as Cespdes Alfredo Despaignes hit 27 HR and the following season broke the record of 33 set by Abreu/Cespdes. He’s considered less of a defection risk and is currently playing in the Mexican League this year on loan from Cuba.
      He’s hitting .388/.364/.564/.928 with 8 HR’s in 33 Games in the Mexican League.

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