By Will Cheney | contributorMajor League Baseball pulled no punches as it announced the fate of the Atlanta Braves following an investigation into the club’s dealings in the international free-agent market.For those who don’t follow, MLB dropped the hammer on the Braves last week for circumventing the rules for signing international free agents (which is a technical term for 16-year-old ballplayers). MLB has strict guidelines in place to create a limit for each team to spend internationally, so that one or two rich clubs cannot sign all the talent. The Braves, general manager John Coppolella specifically, were caught essentially lying to the league about the signing bonuses they were agreeing to with players.
“During the 2015-16 international signing period, the Braves signed five players subject to the Club’s signing bonus pool to contracts containing signing bonuses lower than the bonuses the club had agreed to provide to players,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “The Club provided the additional bonus money to those players by inflating the signing bonus to another player who was exempt from their signing pool because he qualified as a ‘foreign professional’ under MLB rules.”Coppolella resigned on Oct. 2 amid the heat of the investigation, which was probably for the best considering he was handed the harshest punishment of all those involved. He was placed on a lifetime band. President John Hart left the club shortly after Coppolella.The biggest headline of the punishment involves the 12 prospects the Braves signed in this fashion. They were declared free agents by MLB, and are free to sign with any other club. This included 17-year-old Venezuelan infielder Kevin Maitan (ranked No. 38 overall by Baseball America), who some consider to be the next Miguel Cabrera.“Our organization has not lived up to the standard our fans expect from us and that we expect from ourselves,” the Braves said in a statement. “For that, we apologize. We are instituting the changes necessary to prevent this from ever happening again and remain excited about the future of Braves baseball.”On Nov. 12, the club took the first step in moving on from this incident by hiring Alex Anthopoulos as the new general manager. Previously, he was VP of baseball operations for the Los Angeles Dodgers and GM of the Toronto Blue Jays.The good news for the club is that even with this loss of talent, they still boast one of the top farm systems in the sport. It will, however, hinder the club’s mobility in the trade market. The fact is that prospects aren’t only seen as future talent, but also, as currency. This lack of trade chips will provide a different challenge for Anthopoulos going forward.Contact Will Cheney at wcheney@augusta.edu.The story was published on December 7, 2017, in Volume 60, Issue 2, of The Bell Ringer newspaper.