The "Other" Herrera

Dilson Herrera is Buried Treasure's #16 prospect on our top 30 list and his prospect profile was recently completed. During the course of research on Dilson, I came across an old piece of known, but somewhat forgotten news.  Here, I outlined the four international signings the Pirates had made up to that date. Since then, there has been a fifth signing, the other Herrera, Johan.  By signing bonus, Herrera actually received the second lowest amount, but it's still a substantial bonus.  For comparison, if Herrera, who hails from the Dominican Republic, has signed prior to the 2011 international free agent signing period, he would have received the second biggest amount for a non-Cuban defector in organizational history.

International Bounty: 2012

Julio De La Cruz at the plate.

The Pirates have willingly spent significantly more money in Latin America during Neal Huntington's tenure.  Part of the new emphasis in Latin America has come from a directive put forth by team owner Bob Nutting.  Thus far, the results have been mixed.  Overall, the Latin American pipeline has been a boon over the past few years, with Starling Marte, Luis Heredia, Alen Hanson, and Gregory Polanco all becoming top prospects in all of baseball.  Interestingly, Heredia is the only player of the four who received a significant bonus, which turned out to be a seven-figure bonus.