The wait to get to January 15 marks the date that the Washington Nationals will announce their newest international free agency (IFA) class. The signings today are led by four players ranked in Baseball America by the amount of their signing bonuses to include №16 Samil Serrano ($1.97 million), №18 Isaias Suarez ($1.9 million), №52 Angel Ramirez ($1 million), and №53 Juan Duran ($1 million). They are all listed as primary outfielders from the Dominican Republic. Official signing lists can get announced at 11am this morning.
Expect at least a dozen IFAs signed by the Nats today. Follow Nationals Source, @francysromeroFR rankings, and FanGraphs for additional information on the signings. Also, MLB Pipeline will putting up their rankings. Baseball America has a bonus tracker for all teams on this link.
There are plenty of videos out there of Nats signings. One thing for sure, Serrano has his arrow trending up per Baseball America. Check out their video:
The last four years, the Nats shifted away from a strategy of spending most of their international money on one player. This year, the Nats have a total spending cap of $6,679,200. The Nats Top-4 were signed for just under $5.9 million in bonuses. That leaves about $700,000 for the rest of the players receiving over $10,000. We mention $10,000 because that bonus level is the threshold where it doesn’t count against the cap.
Not every team has the same spending cap. The Nats are in the third tier of capped spending this year. The Nats spread most of their money this year among four players. Last year, the Nats went with a similar strategy of signing two Top-20 players when they signed SS Brayan Cortesia and C Daniel Hernandez, and the year before with OF Victor Hurtado and SS Angel Feliz at the heads of their class.
Last year and for the first time, the Nationals went with Venezuelan amateurs at the top of their bonus board as it has been either Dominican or Cuban players in the past at the top of their board. Venezuelan crosschecker, Juan Indriago, has stepped up as a key scout in last year’s international signing period to acquire both Cortesia and Hernandez.
With the Nats Top-4 signings at the outfield position, they do have some infielders and pitchers in the mix. Nationals Source ranks RHP Aldemaro Sevilla as the top arm for the Nats in this class. He is a 6’5 right-handed high velo pitcher. As he fills into his frame and gets that pro coaching, expect more from him.
As mentioned, the Nats moved away from what they had done in the past with spending most of their money on one top player, like they did with Yasel Antuna, Armando Cruz, and Cristhian Vaquero in prior international signing periods. There were others too. That strategy leaves little room in spending on other players. For instance, the Nats paid Vaquero a total of $4.925 million, Cruz at $3.9 million, and Antuna got $3.85 million back in 2016. In contrast, Hurtado and Feliz signed for a combined $4.5 million. Cortesia and Hernandez signed for $1.92 million and $1.1 million respectively for a combined $3.02 million.
Some teams have shown better results going with more top players, and a reminder that Juan Soto was the 22nd ranked player in his signing class back in 2015. If you think it is tough to sign 21 year old college players, the IFA process has you scouting players while they are in Middle School and committing to them at 15 years old. International players are officially eligible to sign with MLB teams when they are at least the age of 16, and must be born on or before Aug. 31, 2009 for this class. They also must have residency outside of the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico.
Three years ago, the Nats signed three Top-50 IFA’s per MLB Pipeline in that class with SS Manuel Cabrera ($500,000 signing bonus) and ranked №39 on the International Prospect list, OF Andy Acevedo ($1,200,000 signing bonus) and ranked №45, and SS Edwin Solano ($1,200,000 signing bonus) and the №46 ranked prospect. Where are they now? This is part of the hit-and-miss on these international free agents.
In 2022, the Nats signed the №2 IFA in that class as they inked the 17-year-old Cuban outfielder, Vaquero, to that team-record $4.925 million signing bonus. Known as “The Phenomenon“, Vaquero did not exactly light it up in A-ball. In Baseball America’s rankings this past week, Vaquero was dropped out of the Top-30 team prospects.
Three years ago, the Nats had to pivot in strategy because of their top prospect, Anthony Gutierrez, reclassified to the previous year, and signed with the Texas Rangers. Not having the available pool money to sign him in 2022, the Nats pivoted to signing more mid-level prospects than ever before in this IFA class.
As you saw in the Dominican Summer League (DSL) play three years ago, that was a weak team that hit rock bottom. The architect behind it all, Johnny DiPuglia, had a parting of ways with the team after the 2023 season per ex-general manager Mike Rizzo as it was reported that DiPuglia resigned, and Rizzo made sure in a radio interview to let it be known that it was a mutual decision.
After DiPuglia’s departure, the Nats named Fausto Severino as their Director of International Operations. Severino joined the Nats in 2009 as an administrator in their Dominican Academy. After the 2024 season ended, Rizzo continued with his overhaul of his international operations and Severino’s contract was not renewed, and he was replaced internally by Victor Rodriguez who has been in the Nats system since 2023. Rodriguez had been a scout for the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays since 2009 until he was hired by the Nationals in 2023.
After Paul Toboni was hired as the President of Baseball Operations by the Nationals in October, he has made additional changes in the Nats international scouting system that included the firing of four scouts. One of the international scouts fired was Modesto Ulloa, the man credited with scouting Juan Soto.
Since Soto and Victor Robles were signed, the international market for the Nats have mostly been a lot of money wasted. Of the home-grown talent, it’s just Luis García Jr. remaining on the active roster as Jose A. Ferrer was traded this offseason. In the farm system, only Andry Lara is the other 40-man player as a home-grown player who has matriculated from the IFA process. Joan Adon was DFA’d and out of the Nats system.
This new class of prospects will all be part of the Nats’ Dominican Academy and should all be participating in the DSL this summer.
UPDATED: The Nats have signed 15 International Free Agents. Most names you’ve heard. Here’s the full list:
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:
- OF Samil Serrano — *№16 prospect in the 2026 International Class, per Baseball America / №26 international prospect, per MLBPipeline
- OF Isaias Suarez — *№18 prospect in the 2026 International Class, per Baseball America / №39 international prospect, per MLBPipeline
- OF Angel Ramirez — *№52 prospect in the 2026 International Class, per Baseball America
- OF Juan Duran — *№53 prospect in the 2026 International Class, per Baseball America
- OF Jawel Garcia
- SS Euris Acosta
- 3B Rayniel Lache
- C Carlos Mueses
PANAMA:
9. OF Brad Rodriguez
VENEZUELA:
10. RHP Santiago Moreno
11. RHP Christopher Navas
12. RHP Josue Rondon
13. RHP Aldemaro Sevilla
14. C Pedro Guerra
15. C Luis Tarifa
You will notice that the Nats signed no pitchers from the Dominican Republic, and only two infielders in this IFA class. All of the pitchers (four) are Venezuelan. The team also got three catchers of which two are from Venezuela. The Nats signed a whopping six outfielders of which five came from the Dominican Republic and one from Panama.
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