Kansas City Royals sign largest international free-agent class in club history

The Kansas City Royals started 2022 by signing the largest class of international free agents in the franchise’s history, a group that includes players from five countries.

Tuesday, the Royals announced they’d reached agreements on minor-league contracts with 28 international free agents. Twenty of the new signees come from the Dominican Republic, while three are natives of Venezuela, two hail from Colombia, two are from Mexico and one is from Aruba.

The historically-large class size, which will is expected to grow before the end of the signing period on Dec. 15, wasn’t necessarily be design, according to Royals senior vice president/assistant GM for major league & international operations Rene Francisco.

“It’s just the way the market worked out,” said Francisco, who described the international market as “unpredictable” due to the dealings between clubs and trainers that often cause players to appear and disappear from the market for periods of time.

Colombian catcher Juan David Olmos, the nephew of Royals scout Rafael Miranda, leads the group. MLB.com ranked Olmos the 25th-best international signing prospect this year. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound 17-year-old has reportedly drawn comparisons, physically, to a young Salvador Perez.

“I know he loves to play the game, and he has good makeup. That’s the same thing Salvy had at a young age,” Francisco said when asked about the Perez comparison. “There’s a lot of ball to play. There’s a lot of years ahead of him. I know that he’s going to get to his ceiling because he loves the game and his work ethic is really good. But if people are comparing him to Salvy, I can say they’re comparing because of the size, the stature and the body. But Salvy is pretty special. It’s hard to compare a young kid to Salvador Perez.”

Olmos signed for a $800,000 signing bonus, according to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez.

Dominican outfielder Henry Ramos ranks No. 45 on the same list. The left-handed hitting 17-year-old is viewed as a good all-around athlete with a wiry frame. The Royals believe he has the ability to stay in center field, they like his arm and the metrics collected by the performance science department showed impressive strength despite his thin frame.

Ramos also signed for an $800,000 signing bonus, per MLB.com.

Dominican first baseman Manuel German comes with strong bloodlines as the cousin of Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

The 28-player group included 16 pitchers (12 right-handers, four left-handers), four outfielders, four shortstops, two catchers and two corner infielders. Francisco lauded the depth of the class.

The Royals see big potential in the skill set of outfielder Erick Torres, a right-handed hitter who trained at the same site as Ramos, as well as the hitting ability of shortstop Ivan Sosa. They’re very intrigued by the combination of the hitting ability, size and tools present in shortstop Josi Novas and the intangibles, makeup and advanced ability of middle infielder Charles Nova.

“I think we got very good talent for that amount of money that we invested in these players,” Francisco said. “We’re just fortunate that those players were available and our staff — our international scouts, cross checkers and supervisors did a hell of a job along with Albert Gonzalez kind of overseeing the whole process.”

The Royals went into the international signing period with a bonus pool of $6,262,600.

In 2019, the Royals devoted a large portion of the bonus pool to signing outfielder and highly-regarded outfielder Erick Pena for just shy of $3.9 million.

Last year, their initial class signed in January included 12 players led by shortstop Daniel Vazquez for $1.5 million.

This year, the Royals were not the only team to announce a signing class of more than 20 players. Earlier this month, the Baltimore Orioles announced the signing of 24 international free agents and the Los Angeles Dodgers announced 30 international signings.

Royals’ international signings:

RHP Andy Basora (Dominican Republic)

RHP Carlos De La Rosa (Dominican Republic)

LHP Jesus Franco (Mexico)

1B Manuel German (Dominican Republic)

LHP Agustin Herrera (Mexico)

RHP Henson Leal (Venezuela)

RHP Yuniol Marte (Dominican Republic)

C Jose Medina (Venezuela)

CF Raimer Medina (Dominican Republic)

SS Charles Nova (Dominican Republic)

SS Josi Novas (Dominican Republic)

RHP Swandrick Oduber (Aruba)

C Juan David Olmos (Colombia)

SS Alexander Orasma (Venezuela)

LHP Juan Ozuna (Dominican Republic)

SS Angel Pierre (Dominican Republic)

RHP Yimi Presinal (Dominican Republic)

CF Henry Ramos (Dominican Republic)

RHP Emmanuel Reyes (Dominican Republic)

LHP Edinson Salgado (Colombia)

RHP Junior Sanchez (Dominican Republic)

RHP Jeremy Santos (Dominican Republic)

SS Ivan Sosa (Dominican Republic)

CF Luis Tejeda (Dominican Republic)

CF Erick Torres (Dominican Republic)

RHP Luis Valdez (Dominican Republic)

RHP Richi Valdez (Dominican Republic)

RHP Pineda Werner (Dominican Republic)