It wasn’t until Dayton Moore became the General Manager of the Kansas City Royals that the team really became proactive in the international free agent market. Eloy Jimenez, Gleyber Torres, and Luis Severino are all notable names that have emerged from international free agency.
As mentioned, the Royals have taken more of an interest in pursuing international free agent under Moore and signed Salvador Perez in 2006, Adalberto Mondesi in 2011, and budding superstar Seuly Matias in 2015, just to name a few.
The previous format of international free agency was that teams could negotiate in a “free-for-all” type of tactic.