Blue Jays to Pay Luxury Tax for Overspending on International Free Agents

Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos has spent the early part of July pillaging and plundering the international scene of its top prospects.

Franklin Barreto, Luis Castro and Richard Urena, all consensus top 20 international prospects, signed with Toronto earlier this month.

According to Ben Badler of Baseball America, it took Anthopoulos more than the permissible level of capital allotted to teams for international signing bonuses under the new collective bargaining agreement to lure the trio north of their respective borders.

Barreto received a bonus of $1.45 million, Castro got $800,000 and Urena pulled in a cool $725,000. That makes $2,975,000 million total for the three. 

Badler explains that the MLB's new CBA caps each team's spending in international markets at $2,900,000 per year, enforcing the limit under threat of a 75 percent luxury tax imposed against the amount of which the cap is exceeded.

In Toronto's case, the luxury tax will come out at $56,250. 

It could have been worse, though. If a team goes over the $2.9 million dollar cap by more than five percent, they are restricted from signing more than one international prospect to a bonus of $500,000  or greater the following season, in addition to the 75 percent luxury tax.

While fans that condemn Anthopoulos' aggressive pursuit of international talent will likely be few and far between, chances are high that the execs at Rogers Communications are throwing a major collective tantrum.