New York Mets Sign Dominican Prospect to $5 Million Bonus, Draws Comp to Rafael Devers

Elian Peña has now signed for the largest signing bonus of any Latin American player in this international signing class.
A New York Mets hat and glove in the dugout in the second inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in 2024.
A New York Mets hat and glove in the dugout in the second inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in 2024. / Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images
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Wednesday officially kicked off the international signing period around baseball, so teams were busy at work codifying deals with top prospects all around the world.

And the New York Mets certainly got their guy, inking Dominican infielder Elian Peña to the biggest bonus of any Latin American player in this cycle.

Per Francys Romero on social media:

The Dominican INF Elian Peña has officially signed with the New York Mets.

Bonus deal: $5,000,000. Highest bonus in the class for a Latin American player.

A hitter with strong MLB potential, Peña has a power profile reminiscent of Rafael Devers.

You don't want to put too much pressure on a young kid, but Devers is one of the top hitters in all of baseball, so that's certainly high praise and should give Mets fans solid reasons for optimism moving forward.

Peña is years away from making an impact at the big-league level, but the hope is that he can help continue the lineage of strong infield play for the Mets. David Wright and Francisco Lindor are two of the most successful players of the 2000s and current infielder Mark Vientos looks like he could be one of the better young hitters in the game as well.

The Mets are among the biggest spending teams in all of baseball, so it's important for them to develop their farm system. Though they can spend their way through almost any scenario, being able to develop homegrown and affordable talent will be an important counter measure to all that spending.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.