Braves eyed Jose Perdomo for years before signing him to club-record $5 million bonus

ATLANTA — An Atlanta Braves scout first saw Jose Perdomo when the Venezuelan shortstop was 12, said Jonathan Cruz, the Braves’ director of Latin American scouting. A few years ago, when Cruz himself saw Perdomo for the first time, it was at agent Yasser Méndez’s 4pro International baseball academy in Valencia, Venezuela, where Cruz went to see another prospect.

“He’s a certified agent; he knows what he’s doing,” Cruz said, referring to Méndez being part of the MLB Trainer Partnership Program. “He was there that day, and he said, ‘Hey, open your eyes, I got a new guy.’ Brought (Perdomo) in early, said he’s going to be special. So I was there. We watched him, and yeah, he was definitely interesting. Eleven, 12 years old — I honestly wasn’t going to say if he was going to be a shortstop or not. He was too young. But he stood in the box with no fear. He was facing guys way older than him.

“I put a little asterisk on his name, and we let time pass by, and then that’s when we started our process with him.”

On Monday, opening day of MLB’s international free-agent signing period, the Braves wasted no time signing Perdomo, giving the 17-year-old line-drive hitter a $5 million bonus — a club-record amount for an international free agent and the largest signing bonus for any prospect in this year’s class of international free agents. The Braves were on Perdomo earlier than other teams, but after he dazzled in a Florida showcase event last year there were other teams interested.

The Braves weren’t going to let him get away.

Perdomo, lauded for superb bat-to-ball skills, advanced strike-zone recognition and a compact, easy swing that produces slews of line drives to all fields, ended up rated the No. 3 prospect in this class of international prospects. But the Braves and Alex Anthopoulos, their aggressive general manager and president of baseball operations, had him at the top of their board, and were ready to sign him as soon as it was permitted.

“It’s exhilarating,” Cruz said of working under Anthopoulos, who signed a contract extension of his own last week that runs through 2031 and is all about making sure the Braves are a perennial contender rather than one with only a small window in which to win championships. “Alex is pretty passionate about international free agents. He’s really good at it, as well. That $5 million price tag doesn’t come without competition. I think most people could kind of appreciate that there were other teams involved early, in the mix. And when Alex wants the top guy, he’s going to get the top guy.

“So we felt tremendous support from him. He was well involved. And that’s how we landed our guy.”

In signing day pictures posted on his Instagram page, wearing a No. 13 Braves jersey with his name on the back — the same number worn by his Venezuelan countryman and a player he idolizes, Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. — Perdomo is flashing a huge grin, the boyish face and braces belying the body that is quickly maturing into that of a big-time ballplayer.

The Braves hope he will be a major addition to their organization and a significant contributor at the major-league level before long. He’s drawn comparisons to a couple of other Venezuelan hitters including the New York Yankees’ Gleyber Torres and — gulp — iconic slugger Miguel Cabrera.

“Everyone’s like, wow, this looks just like Gleyber when he was that age,” Cruz said, repeating the most common comparison leading up to the signing period. “Gleyber was the highest-profile position player of his year in Venezuela. I think we’re starting to see what people thought Gleyber was going to be, these last few years. Obviously, he had a little bit of a slower start at the big-league level, but he’s contributing pretty well now.”

But it was the other comparison that changed the tone in Cruz’s voice as he shared where he first heard it.

“I haven’t been doing this long enough to bring this comp to the table,” he said, “but after that Florida showcase, a very seasoned, very veteran scouting director mentioned it. Said he looked like a young Miguel Cabrera. And that stuck with me. I started digging into old video of Miggy. I talked to the scout that signed him, and yeah, I think that’s the closest real comp of Perdomo. I’m comfortable saying that.

“It’s a big name to compare, a future Hall of Famer, but the bat was kind of — that’s what Miggy had to look like. And it stuck with me.”

Perdomo’s increase in size and arm strength has been accompanied by improved defense, and the Braves went from thinking that he might be better suited to second base or third base in the future, to believing now that he’s right where he needs to be — at shortstop. Perdomo has the arm and the athleticism for the position, they say. And without question, Cruz said, he has the offense.

“The most important thing to talk about here is his bat,” Cruz said. “Obviously, these kids are very young. We think the hardest thing to teach, if you can teach at all, is to hit. And that’s his calling card.”

Perdomo in the past few years played in front of scouts in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and in a couple of showcase events in the United States.

“He had a big showcase (in Florida) side-by-side with Ethan Salas, a prospect with the San Diego Padres,” Cruz said, referring to the catching phenom who was the top player in the 2023 international free-agent class. “And the competition was well above their (age) levels (at the Florida event). They were throwing pitchers that had been in Double A and Triple A — 97, 96 mph fastballs, hard breaking balls. And with our whole process, I think that’s where we were kind of blown away with the adjustments (Perdomo) was making and the performance.

“And we said, this is the guy we have to go after.”

Don’t let the baby face and braces fool you: Perdomo has grown into a physically mature ballplayer, likely to get stronger but not necessarily much bigger.

“We have him at 5-11, 185 (pounds), so he’s grown a bit,” said Cruz, who said Perdomo was about 2 inches shorter and 40 pounds lighter a few years ago. “So, puberty hit, he had a good system going, and he’s good to go. … I don’t think he’ll make it to 6 (feet). I don’t think he needs to, either. He’s fairly strong. The lower half is pretty strong. He’s got a very athletic body. He looks good in a uniform. So, he’s (big) enough.”

The Braves were almost entirely prohibited from signing international free agents for several years because of sanctions resulting from rules infractions in international free agency under the previous front-office regime of John Coppolella and John Hart. That prevented Anthopoulos from using an important system-building resource during his first few years after taking over baseball operations in December 2017.

This is the second year the Braves have been free to sign such prospects, and Perdomo is the one who could make a major splash with the Braves in the not-too-distant future. But they say they won’t rush him, in part because former international free-agent prospects like Acuña and second baseman Ozzie Albies are signed to long-term major-league contracts that allow the six-time NL East champion Braves to avoid being impetuous with their top young prospects.

“We have a pretty controllable team in the bigs, so we have that sort of patience,” Cruz said. “And it’s going to be exciting to see him move up. … And I think with Perdomo, it was our true starting point with a guy that we had a lot of history on, and we weren’t rushed to make a decision, and we got what we think is the top of the class.”

But about that No. 13 that Perdomo has chosen to begin his career …

“Yeah, I asked him maybe like three or four times if he was sure what he was doing with the number 13,” Cruz said, smiling. “And he was confident. That’s his number, that’s the number he likes. He said himself, we’ll address that number when we get to the bigs. He’s not out for Acuña’s number; it doesn’t work that way. He sees him more as an idol. Does Acuña know about the kid? I don’t know, probably; they’re Venezuelans. We’ve had an edge with Venezuelans because of that Acuña effect. Are we calling Acuña and telling him, ‘Hey, help us out with this guy?’ No. He’s an MVP. We don’t have to ask for help. These kids dream about being on the same field with him. So, yeah, it does help.”

(Photo of Alex Anthopoulos: Matthew Grimes Jr./Getty Images)