It has been a while since anything from the International ranks has been reported for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Bucs were aggressive early signing one of the top pitching prospects in Jun-Seok Shim and outfielder Raymond Moya who ranked as a top 20 hitting prospect available. The previous year was similar in the fact that the Bucs signed two of the top hitters Yordany De Los Santos and Tony Blanco Jr.
Well according to Hector Gomez, a reporter out of the Dominican Republic, the Pittsburgh Pirates have agreed to terms with a new prospect. This prospect is not as highly touted as some of the ones mentioned earlier, but his name definitely catches attention. Gomez shared that the Bucs agreed to a $100,000 signing bonus with Anthony Sosa. The idea of a six-figure bonus for amateur International players represents what could be called a "large" bonus. So this is a decent chunk of what the team is allowed to spend at this point in the signing period.
Sosa is listed as a shortstop or outfielder, obviously showing that he has the athleticism to play both. Of course, this could also suggest that the bat is ahead of the glove at this point. That should not be all that surprising after all his uncle was one of the top home run hitters of the last 30 years.
The Pittsburgh Pirates may be trying to model other Organizations such as the Blue Jays in bringing in prospects with pedigree.
This is interesting to note. While pedigree is an intangible rather than a tool, it is becoming more and more popular in Baseball. The Toronto Blue Jays are an example of this trotting out Bo Bichette, Calvin Biggio, and Vladamir Guerrero Jr. Ben Cherington and Steven Sanders were both in Toronto during those pivotal years of those players being brought into the Organization.
We saw this last year when the Bucs signed Tony Blanco Jr, the son of former big leaguer Tony Blanco. So this definitely seems like a theme from the Front Office. Hopefully, they will be able to continue and get high-pedigree players.