Given recent history, Braves fans shouldn’t be overly concerned about whether Perdomo will reach the heights of Cabrera. But it’s understandable if they just want the young shortstop to be something more than Kevin Maitan. He was one of the franchise’s most-hyped international prospects since Andruw Jones and Wilson Betemit.
Right now, some of you are cussing Maitan and everything else pertaining to the Braves’ 2016 international class. The illegal assembly of this over-hyped group led to MLB levying significant sanctions against the organization. Eight years later, Maitan and most members of this class have not lived up to expectations.
You might remember when Maitan was given his $4.25 million signing bonus in 2016. Ronald Acuña Jr. was given a $100,000 signing bonus two years earlier. But you probably didn’t hear about that until he began blossoming into one of the game’s greatest players.
It’s difficult to project what you are going to get when you are taking college players and high school graduates in the MLB Draft. Most of those players range from 17-21 years old. The international market provides an even greater challenge as players begin to be targeted before they are teenagers.
“It’s the Wild West in international [scouting],” Cruz said. “We’re scouting these kids as young as we can scout them. If we’re scouting the [2024 or '25 class] and we see a ['28 or '29 eligible player] on the field, we’re not going to close our eyes.
“We wish it was kind of like the Draft process, where you come into a decision with three or four years of history, but that's not the case. So we do our best to get history early. And when the time comes, we’ll make an informed decision and, hopefully, get the right guy.”