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