Padres’ international dominance hits major snag with latest prospect scandal

In terms of the biggest names on the international free agent market, few teams can compare to the San Diego Padres in recent years. In 2023, the Padres inked consensus top IFA prospect Ethan Salas to a massive $5.6 million bonus and then followed that up by signing Leo De Vries this year.

Adding the top prospect in any given pool of international free agents is rare and San Diego did so in back-to-back years, which is pretty remarkable.

However, dealing with international prospects who are just kids comes with a lot of risk. Not only do a lot of these players end up not developing the way that teams project, but there are a lot of shady handlers as well as the potential for age fraud that lurk in the international market, creating a lot of risk for teams.

The Padres unfortunately found out about one of those problems the hard way over the weekend as it was revealed that a prospect they had a tentative agreement with, Cesar Altagracia, had lied about his age when preparing to be a free agent.

Padres Prospect Update: Cesar Altagracia reportedly lied about age

Most of the press here is centered around the fact that the 19-year-old Altagracia somehow passed himself off as 14 years old, but we'll ignore that for the moment. San Diego losing out on a top IFA target definitely stinks, but it really helps that Altagracia couldn't have been signed until 2027, so they will have plenty of time to find other ways to spend the rumored $4 million in IFA bonus pool money that it would have taken to sign him.

However, one sneaky part of this news is that Altagracia already had a verbal agreement in place with the Padres. While it is an open secret that MLB teams reach deals with these teenage prospects before they are actually eligible to be signed, it is against the rules to do so and it is unclear how much MLB is going to care about that part. So far, it does seem like MLB is far more focused on the age fraud part of this story, though.

Ultimately, the timing of the scandal works out pretty well for the Padres. Their top heavy farm system has been built on taking big swings in international free agency, and having this happen now at least allows San Diego to make better use of their limited bonus pool money. If this information had been uncovered just a few weeks or months before he signed, it would have been a total nightmare.

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