Based on the available evidence from conversations with sources in the game, the Cardinals and White Sox look like the most likely landing spots for Robert.
St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals are over their bonus pool. GM John Mozeliak went to the Dominican Republic for their private workout with Robert where Robert homered against live pitching. The Cardinals were aggressive in adding Cuban players since July 2, signing righthander Johan Oviedo ($1.9 million) and center fielders Jonatan Machado ($2.35 million) and Randy Arozarena ($1.25 million), as well as $2.5 million for outfielder Jose Adolis Garcia, who was exempt from the pools.
They also don’t have a pick in next month’s draft until No. 94 overall. They surrendered their first-round pick to sign Dexter Fowler in free agency, then forfeited the No. 56 and 75 picks to the Astros as a penalty for their repeated illegal breach of Astros databases. So not only are the Cardinals waiting until the third round to make their top pick, they also have the smallest draft bonus pool at $2,176,000. That’s nearly half the 29th-highest bonus pool and far less than the $11-$15 million each that teams picking in the top five (including the Reds, Padres and A’s) have in their pools.
The Cardinals have money to spend, a strong motivation to spend due to their circumstances and have demonstrated high-level interest within the organization to try to sign Robert.
Who disagrees?
Make your guess here.
Last edited by Tim on May 18 17, 6:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
It sure was, & I was irritated when reading through this. There was already an open thread on Luis Robert, so why was a new one started, when there was no signing?