Say hey, baseball: Dodgers join Yoan Moncada chase

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Last week, the Red Sox and Yankees were considered the favorites for Cuban infielder Yoan Moncada. They still might be, but another team with deep pockets and the desire to empty them has joined the fray: the Dodgers are now expected to shift their attention to Moncada with another target of theirs, Yoan Lopez, signed to the Diamondbacks. Moncada still isn’t officially a free agent since he hasn’t been cleared to work in the United States yet, but once he is, these three are going to try to sign him to a record-shattering deal.

The aforementioned Lopez just agreed to a record-setting contract for a Cuban prospect, one that will pay him $8.25 million. It’s believed that Moncada, who is still just 19 and will head to the minors when he does sign, will pull in between $30 million and $40 million. Now, any team in the majors can afford that deal over the five or six years he’ll likely sign for, but while that’s what Moncada will earn, he will cost more. Since he hasn’t played in Serie Nacional long enough and isn’t old enough, he’s still subject to international spending limits. A deal for between $30 million to $40 million will result in a 100 percent tax on international spending, meaning he’s actually going to cost his new team between $60 million and $80 million. Another way to put that: the Rays had a record payroll to open 2014, and it came in at $76 million.

That tax limits the market for Moncada, and while the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Yankees aren’t the only teams who can afford it, they’re probably the ones who can shrug it off the best. The Sox have already shown a willingness to take this kind of lump sum financial risk on an international player before when they won the negotiating rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka before 2007, a move that saw them write a $51.1 million check to the Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball just for the right to pay Dice-K. They’ve said before that moves that just cost them money are the preferable ones to make. The Yankees need no introduction for their free-spending ways, and the Dodgers might be stronger adherents to those philosophies than the Yankees themselves these days. If they can throw $10 million at the oft-injured Brett Anderson or spend almost $10 million to make Brian Wilson disappear, they can invest $40 million in acquiring a high-quality teenage talent that they won’t be able to secure late in the draft.