According to the Dominican Prospect League baseball site, the Pittsburgh Pirates have signed 16 year old catcher Yoel Gonzalez. Gonzalez wasn’t eligible to sign until today, when he turned 16. The DPL site says he signed for $350,000. He’s 6′ 1″, 175 pounds, and a righty/righty.
The scouting report on the site notes that he’s a mature receiver behind the plate, who receives the ball cleanly and blocks with good fundamentals and quickness. He’s got clean arm action, with pop times in the 1.9-2.0 range. Offensively he’s got a lot of projection, squaring up to balls and hitting to all fields. He’s more of a gap hitter right now, but could develop average power in the future.
The international signing tracker has been updated with the move.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
What are pop times?
They measure how fast a catcher can throw down to second. The time starts when the ball pops the catcher’s glove, and ends when the ball pops the second baseman’s glove.
That’s pretty good for a 16 year old, yes?
Well no doubt, we needed a guy name Yoel in the organization.