SF Giants agree to terms with 11 prospects in signing cycle

The SF Giants were very busy on Saturday as the international free agent signing period opened. They had been connected to 17-year-old shortstop prospect Ryan Reckley and were able to complete that deal, but they signed 10 others prospects as well.

SF Giants agree to terms with 11 prospects in signing cycle

The Giants had approximately $5.2 million in bonus pool spending during this cycle and $2.2 million of that space was allocated to Reckley. Wrenzie Regodon wrote a very nice profile on the Bahamanian shortstop and addressed the comparisons to former Giants prospect Lucius Fox.

That said, Reckley was not the only prospect they signed on Saturday. Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic provided the details of the entire class:

Catcher prospects Juan Pérez and Alessandro Durán signed for an estimated $1.2 million and $4000,000, respectively. Similarly, middle infield prospect Dennys Riera signed for $700,000. These three signings along with Reckley put the Giants' spending for this period at roughly $4.5 million.

In total, the Giants signed four pitchers, three shortstops, two catchers, one center fielder, and one right fielder. It bears mentioning that most infield prospects at that age start out as shortstops and then move off of that position when a change is necessary.

On a different note, the Giants continue to spend considerable capital even after using first round picks on both Joey Bart (2018) and Patrick Bailey (2020) in recent seasons. It is an interesting observation and is something that both the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland A's do as well. Not surprisingly, Zaidi has ties to both of those organizations.

This class is comparatively smaller than the prior two classes where the Giants more evenly spread the money around. They nabbed a high-profile name in Reckley, who represented the largest investment made on the international market since Farhan Zaidi took over as team president of baseball operations.

The small class could be due to the fact that the number of minor league affiliates was reduced by one last offseason, meaning that there are fewer roster spots. Either way, it is an exciting time to be a Giants fan as the farm system continues to get stronger, even if some of these signings may not impact the major league roster anytime soon.