The Boston Red Sox were hit with some sanctions from Major League baseball late last week. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reported that the Red Sox "packaged" players to find a way around the bonus money cap. As punishment, the Red Sox cannot sign international players for one full year, and five different contracts were voided. Today, the Phillies jumped in to take advantage.
Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com reports that the Phillies have a deal with one of the players whose contract was voided:
Source: #Phillies agree to $750K deal OF Simon Muzziotti. Formerly with Red Sox, SM declared a free agent last week after MLB investigation.
— Jesse Sanchez (@JesseSanchezMLB) July 5, 2016
The best part of the deal is that the money will not count fully toward their international allotment.
Passan reports that the first $300,000 of any deal made with the players will count toward their international signing allotment. That means the Phillies will only take a $450,000 hit against their allotment for 2016-2017. At $5,610,800.00, the Phillies have the largest bonus pool in the Major Leagues for the 2016-2017 signing period.
An MLB.com report on Muzziotti suggests that a comparable player to Muzziotti might be outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury. Muzziotti is a Venezuelan native, and the Phillies may have been an attractive team for Muzziotti, given that Phillies players such as Odubel Herrera, Freddy Galvis, Cesar Hernandez, Andres Blanco, Edubray Ramos, Jeanmar Gomez and Elvis Araujo all hail from his home country.
