Pirates now favorite to sign amateur International prospect
Pirates favorites to sign outfield prospect
Article by John Dreker
The Pittsburgh Pirates are the favorites to sign outfielder Limanol Payero Perez, who trains at the Ruben Urena Baseball Academy in the Dominican Republic. The academy has touted Perez as a future Major League player in numerous social media posts. Perez has been linked to the New York Mets for quite some time as one of their more interesting signings, but I (John Dreker) was able to confirm that the Pirates are now the front runners to sign him when the new international signing period opens up on January 15, 2025.
The Pirates had a shakeup on the international side recently, when they let go on Junior Vizcaino as their Director of International Scouting. He was replaced in the role recently by Max Kwan, who returned to the organization after a year away from the team. Kwan has been instrumental in the Pirates signing many higher ranked players from Asia and Australia over the recent years. Prior to that he worked heavily in the Latin American signings. While many signings are in place early, this will be the first international signing class run by Kwan.
While the reports on Perez are few and far between, videos show a tall/lanky player with plenty of room to grow and add power as he gets older.
The Twitter link above has some batting video. I've seen short clips of him in the outfield and he looks smooth out there, but I'm sure they wouldn't post bad clips.
The news here is that you don't see too many players flip teams this late. I know of a few the Pirates lost over the years somewhat late (Escotto was one) and they flipped Blanco Jr very late
Does this mean they’re out on Sasaki?