Outside The Confines: International signings have begun

While the first meeting between MLB and the MLBPA this past week was a dismal failure, there have been some positive moves that we’ve been privy to. The international signing period is upon as and we’re seeing teams sign potential major talent (and often very young players) over the past few days.

Prospects are always uncertain, but so many incredible players have come out of international signings, so it’s always something to look forward to, and also a nice opportunity to see player faces instead of gray boxes.

While it will likely be many years before we see any of these players in action, it’s still nice to see some potential future stars signing with their first clubs.

Here are some stories focusing on the signing period.

• Maria Tores spotlights the Nationals and Yankees as coming away strong in international signings. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Jesse Sanchez breaks down where all the prospects are signing.

Now on to the rest of our links!

• In a heartbreaking update to a story we posted last week, the death of Rays’ bullpen catcher Jean Ramirez has been ruled a suicide. (AP)
• David Laurila chats with Yankees prospect Elijah Dunham.
• New Era has some new incredibly awful caps and Andrew Gastelum has rounded up some Twitter responses to them.
• Michael Clair looks into the past for the time Dizzy Dean left retirement to return to the game.
• Buster Olney predicts the top 10 teams of 2022.
• Players are unimpressed and discouraged by the first round of discussion with MLB during lockout. Story by Evan Drellich. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Seems like Nokes didn’t appreciate his new bruise.

• Bryan Mcwilliam offers suggestions of one player every team might consider trading.
• Avi Wolfman-Arent gives us a look at Sports Reference, home of the beloved resource Baseball Reference, and how they opted to bypass the sports betting boom.
• Ben Clemens bemoans the difficulty is successfully platooning players.
• Brad Ausmus, former Tigers manager, will join the A’s next season as bench coach, writes Alden Gonzalez.
• Melky Cabrera has retired from baseball after 15 seasons in the majors, shared Madeline Coleman.
• Travis Snider bids farewell to baseball in this moving thread.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.