With the news of minor league age limits being enforced for the upcoming season, like many others, Omaha clearly had some work to do. The early reports show so far…so good.Editors note: The Forrest bonus was a mistake. Was supposed to be $550,000 and I guess I put one to many zeroes. Also sorry to @Dington had to take the shot lol.
The most notable might be SP Keith Forrest, who at age 23 is currently projected by scouts to be a middle of the rotation arm when he is fully developed. Omaha agreed enough to actually give him a $5,500,000 bonus. Forrest actually immediately ranks as the #164 overall prospect in the BBA. He looks to be basically ready to face BBA batters, but the team isn't expected to push him to the big leagues this year. It's possible that he might never suit up for Omaha and be traded to another team.
In somewhat surprising news, Omaha did not sign any International Free Agents after publicly stating that they would be active in that market this year.“We knew we had some work to do. We were in on Forrest early, and despite a clerical error, we are excited to have him join our organization.” Said GM Justin Niles. “With the minor league age limits being enforced this year, things are going to look a little bit different. However, we have had a few years to work this out and I think we were in a pretty good spot heading into the off-season compared to most others. Don’t expect another huge number of moves anywhere near this. We just have to get everyone at the correct level that falls under the rules and we should be pretty well aligned.”
"Well it's not because we did not try. We targeted one guy and to be honest, we swung and missed as he signed elsewhere this past week. But hell, we could have been like @Dington in Nashville and signed everyone and is trying to explain to stockholders how the team spent $102 million dollars in IFA guys this year thanks to the penalty. That's more than some teams in the BBA have for a payroll for the year. If we did that, then you guys would have a story to write. The way I see it, we spent $5,500,000 so far on International Free Agents because of the Forrest signing. Forrest has less risk than any of these guys from overseas, as most of them do not turn out the way they originally were perceived at such a young age. Forrest is 23. We know what we got." said GM Justin Niles
