TGP Prospects Night Open Thread featuring Yonauris Rodriguez

Admittedly this video is about a year old but there surprisingly isn't much information on him on Youtube. Yonauris Rodriguez signed with the Yankees out of the Dominican Republic in July 2013 for a whopping $575,000 during that huge international spending spree that New York went on. Rodriguez is a right-handed hitting shortstop and Baseball America's Ben Badler has many good things to say about him.

One of the best defensive shortstops in Latin America is Yonauris Rodriguez, a 16-year-old who trains with Angel Perez and plays in the Dominican Prospect League. At a wiry 6 feet, 150 pounds, Rodriguez will stick at the position because he has good hands, a strong arm and good range. He's a hard-nosed player whose glove is ahead of his bat.

Yankees Dominican Summer League Rosters

by: Ben Embry

The Dominican Summer League starts today.  Like previous years, the Yankees will be fielding two teams.  As you'll recall, New York invested over $30 million in several international free agents, (IFA for short), last July in an unprecedented spending spree.   By most accounts, New York signed 10 of the top 30 IFA, including highly touted prospects SS/3B Dermis Garcia, CF/RF Juan de Leon, and 3B Nelson Gomez.  Of the 10 elite prospects signed, all but Dermis Garcia and 18 year old Korean SS Hy-Joon Park are starting their summers in the Dominican, (see the rosters here: DSL Yankees 1 and DSL Yankees 2).  Here are the main prospects:

DSL Yankees 1
SS Diego Castillo
SS Wilkerman Garcia
3B Nelson Gomez

DSL Yankees 2
C Miguel Flames
RF Jonathan Amundaray
CF Antonio Arias
CF/RF Juan de Leon
RF/LF Brayan Emery

Honestly, I expected most of these players to begin their careers in the United States playing in the Gulf Coast League.  That season does not start for another 2-3 weeks, so I guess it's possible that they will play a handful of games here before coming up to the GCL.  However, most of  the times prospects play whole seasons in the Dominican and do not make that transition in the middle of a season.  If anything, I'm guessing anybody who comes up will do so in July or August.

There are a handful of other prospects on these rosters worth noting, including two prospects who made my Preseason top 30 lists for hitters and pitchers: #30 hitter SS Yonauris Rodriguez and #29 SP Orby Tavares.  The Yankees signed 8 other players last summer to 6 figure contracts that I will be tracking this summer: C Jason Lopez, CF Lisandro Blanco, RF Leobaldo Cabrera, RF/LF Frederick Cuevas, and CF Pablo Olivares on DSL Yankees 1 and SS/2B Griffin Garabito, SS Danienger Perez, and CF Raymundo Moreno on DSL Yankees 2.

Yankees Sign Yonauris Rodriguez

Well, yesterday we reported that it would happen, and sure enough it has.

The Yankees have signed Yonauris Rodriguez for $575,000. That leaves the team just over $1.3 million in order to try and sign fellow Dominican, outfielder Leonardo Molina. Unless, of course, the team is able to trade for more pool money.

Yankees Will Likely Sign Yonauris Rodriguez Tomorrow

Yonaruris Rodriguez is a Dominican short stop that the Yankees will likely sign tomorrow when International spending starts at midnight. The contract is expected to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $500,000 which will eat up a nice chunk of the Yankees $1,880,000 they have to spend for the entire year in the international pool. Y Rod, yeah I am starting that before anyone else gets the idea, is a right handed batter and is considered to be a defensive wizard with quick feet and soft hands. Ben Badler did not rank him in his top 30 International Prospects list before this years international spending spree started but the Yankees have seen enough of him in the Dominican Prospect League and at their minor league complex to know they want him in Yankees pinstripes. The Yankees will almost certainly max out their international spending cap with the expected signings of Y Rod and Leonardo Molina tomorrow.