When the Cincinnati Reds made major international signings throughout the past decade, they’ve primarily focused on Cuban talent.
The Reds stunned the industry when they signed Aroldis Chapman in 2010. They signed Raisel Iglesias in 2014. When they were willing to take a two-year penalty for vastly spending more than their bonus pool in the 2016-17 class, they paid huge bonuses to sign Jose Garcia, Vladimir Gutierrez and Alfredo Rodriguez.
Following the two-year penalty – and a new hard cap on teams' international signing bonus pools – the Reds have made a bigger commitment to sign top talent in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.