Monday, February 16, 2015

Yankees Could Be Interested in Cuban Andy Ibanez


The latest player from Cuba to officially defect from his native country in hopes of landing a major league deal in the United States is Andy Ibanez and he is a second baseman. Ibanez is 21 years old and stands 5'10" and 183 lbs from the right side of the plate.

Ibanez does not have any "premium tools or star upside" according to Baseball America but is overall solid at about everything he does on the diamond. Ibanez won the equivalent of a Gold Glove Award in his rookie season in 2011-2012 and slashed .267/.377/.435 in 280 plate appearances last season in Cuba. With all this said many speculate that Ibanez would start out no higher than Double-A ball and more than likely in Low-A or High-A in the minor leagues.

Ibanez did not play the necessary years in the Serie Nacional and would be subject to 2014-2015 International spending caps. Teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays have already gone over their caps for this season and could easily swallow the penalties to sign Ibanez as a long term investment for their minor league systems.

If the Yankees could land him it wouldn't hurt to have the project and the depth in the system but if he went elsewhere that would be okay too.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)