Phillies land highly-touted catching prospect among numerous international signings

We’ll save you the lazy J.T. Realmuto pun, but the Philadelphia Phillies signed an exciting catcher Friday, one other than the two-time All-Star.

Friday, the MLB’s international signing period opened, and MLB.com‘s Jesse Sanchez reported that the Phillies have agreed to a $1.2 million contract with 17-year-old catcher Rickardo Perez.

Perez, a native of Venezuela, was MLB Pipeline‘s No. 9 overall international prospect. Of Perez, MLB Pipeline says “He has a chance to be an above average hitter and already shows flashes of power to all fields. He has a chance to make an impact on both sides of the ball.”

At 17, there’s obviously quite a bit of development that still needs to take place with Perez. Still, it’s not hard to imagine him eventually succeeding Realmuto, if the Phillies re-sign their current backstop for five seasons.

Perez wasn’t the only signing of the day, with Sanchez also noting that the Phillies have inked a $1.4 million deal with outfielder Yemal Flores:

#Phillies and outfielder Yemal Flores make it official. @MLBPipeline pic.twitter.com/BSQbPayDCj

— Jesse Sanchez (@JesseSanchezMLB) January 15, 2021

Baseball America offered the following assessment of Flores, who is also 17 years old: “Flores has a strong, sturdy build and big power. It comes at the expense of some swing-and-miss tendencies, but Flores generates loft, backspin and drives the ball with impact when he connects.”

Additionally, Ben Badler of Baseball America reports that the Phillies have signed four shortstops Marco Soto, Julio Hereaux, Leonardo Rondon and Yemil Rosario; two more catchers in Manuel Mejias and Dervin Andrade; a catcher/outfielder in Solardo Rodriguez; three RHPs in Daniel Mejia, Joset Aparicio and Juan Melendez and an outfielder Raylin Heredia.

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