The Angels unwisely go for quantity over quality in 2025's international free agency

As the dust settles on the international free agent signing period and the inevitability of Roki Sasaki signing with the Dodgers has come to fruition, it's time to take a look at how the Angels faired in this year's international market.

While the Angels were inexplicably absent from the Sasaki sweepstakes despite the well-known preference of Japanese players to play in California, they did add 18 new prospects to their pipeline during this period. The gem of the group is 17-year-old Venezuelan catcher Gabriel Davalillo who has long-standing family ties to the Angels organization and was a consensus top-20 prospect (#14 at Baseball America, #17 at MLB.com, and #20 at FanGraphs).

Taking a step back, though, is important. The international free agency process is complex and full of rules and limitations. The most crucial piece to understand is how International Bonus Pool money works. Each team is given an allotment that they cannot exceed, though they can add or subtract from that allotment via trades, while also losing or gaining money to spend based on signing or losing free agents with qualifying offers attached.

The Angels entered this period with $6,261,600 to spend on bonuses. Signings of $10,000 do not count towards that allotment, however, any signing over the $10,000 threshold sees the entire bonus count. In theory, a bonus of $10,001 would see the entire $10,001 count against the cap while subtracting just a dollar from the bonus would make it exempt from being taken from the team's pool.

Given these restrictions, teams must be prudent with how they spend. These prospects, primarily hail from Latin America and are literal children when they agree to these deals many of which have been handshake agreements dating back years to when these players were as young as 13.

Though incredibly young, these prospects can eventually be extremely impactful in the future. As CBS Sports Mike Axisa notes in his write-up (linked above), roughly 30% of current major leaguers were amateur international signings, an extraordinarily high amount given the myriad of pitfalls – injury, lack of development, and difficulty assimilating culturally and linguistically – that can befall these youngsters.

The Angels didn't do nearly enough to add high-end talent to the system

Davalillo was a great pickup. He has the power and overall offensive profile to be an impact hitter despite being a catcher while also possessing the requisite athleticism to be at minimum a passable defender at the position. That shouldn't be sneezed at, and his $2 million bonus took up a decent chunk of the Angels' allocation, but he was the only prospect to receive seven figures from the Halos.

However, he was the only consensus top-50 player the Angels signed. The team also agreed to a deal with Dominican shortstop Yilver De Paula who Baseball America ranked their 53rd best prospect. Two other notable deals were with another pair of Dominican shortstops, Yojancel Cabrera and Jose Santana, both of whom signed for $400,000 a piece, though neither cracked any of the top prospect lists.

Meanwhile, other teams did more to add top-end talent. Using Baseball America's rankings, division rivals like the Athletics and the Mariners were much more active in snagging top talent. The A's plucked four top-100 prospects and each of their signings were actually top-50 ranked players. Seattle nabbed five top-100 guys, two of whom were in the top-50. To be fair, both clubs had the max bonus pool to work with, $7,555,500, and that extra money is significant.

However, even when you look at teams on the same footing as the Angels, with $6,261,600 to spend, many fared better. The Red Sox landed five top-100 prospects, with two ranking in the top-50. The Blue Jays scored four in the top-100 with half landing in the top-50. The Yankees lured in three top-100 youngsters and two of them were in the top-50. Even the Cardinals, with roughly $600,000 less to spend added five top-100 guys with one being in the top-50.

In that context, while the Angels brought in 18 prospects to the system, three more than last year's 15-player haul, they didn't add nearly as much high-potential talent as others. Sure, once in a while the lower-tier signings pay off, Astro's ace Framber Valdez was a lowly $10,000 signing for example, the odds are extremely low.

The Halos have done well in the draft in recent years, and their unusual strategy of fast-tracking players has paid big dividends. However, by targeting pro-ready players in the draft and cycling through players quickly at the top levels of the system, they are missing a golden opportunity if they don't stock the lower levels with high-potential international free agents who can benefit from the extra attention they will receive as they move through the system as a result of their drafted counterparts quick ascensions.

As a result, the Angels missed the boat on a golden opportunity. Sure, some of the 18 new faces they added will surprise, and many of the top-100 prospects from this class will flame out, but the team ultimately settled for a quantity over quality approach when the goal should have been adding the most possible impact talent, marking yet another failure for the much-maligned top brass.