Chicago Cubs expected to pursue Yoan Moncada

Even though the Chicago Cubs have one of the best – and deepest – farm systems in all of baseball, the Front Office continues to try and add young talent to the pipeline in an effort to have several coming through the ranks in the coming years.

The Cubs are expected to have the likes of Jorge Soler, Arismendy Alcantara, Javier Baez and Kyle Hendricks as regulars in 2015 and players like Kris Bryant, Pierce Johnson, CJ Edwards and maybe Addison Russell could join them as the season advances. Nonetheless, the FO led by Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer is constantly looking towards the future and they’re expected to be quite active to sign some of the most coveted international free agents.

None of the coming players, however, is more talented than Yoan Moncada. The 19-year-old is seen by some scouts as a “franchise” talent and the bidding is expected to be high. Teams like the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers all have expressed interested in signing the infielder.

Since Moncada is under 23 and didn’t play for at least five seasons in any Cuban professional league, he’s subjected to the international signing guidelines. The Cubs aren’t eligible to spend more than $300.000 since they blew their budget with the 2013 class – that featured the likes of Eloy Jimenez and Gleyber Torres – but starting June 2nd, the Cubs will be able to go “all in” to sign whoever they want.

According to several sources, Moncada is at top of their list. The Cubs phenom has worked out for several teams (including the Yankees, the Red Sox and the current World Series Champions San Francisco Giants) but as Sahadev Sharma pointed out the Cubs are expected to hold a private workout for Moncada in the near future.

The Cubs are a long-shot to land Moncada but since he hasn’t been cleared to sign, the Cubs continue to have a small opportunity to land the Cuban starlet. Based on the information available, the Cubs are reportedly expected to do their best to add one of the craftiest young players that have come out of Cuba in recent years.

After all, nothing prevents the team – or Moncada – to finalize an agreement to sign and announce it in June. Whether Moncada agrees to that remains to be seen but whatever is the case, the Cubs are “all in” to sign the Cuban phenom in what would be another great move by this Front Office.

Next: Cubs begin selling two different ticket packages today