The Red Sox spent $31.5 million to sign Yoan Moncada this offseason. Well, actually, they spent twice that, as there was a 100 percent tax on his bonus, given how international signings work these days. The belief around much of the league is that he'll be worth it, though, especially to a team like the Red Sox who make far, far more money than they spend each year. Moncada's pro career is just getting going in extended spring training, and in his debut, he hit a triple.
Thanks to the one sportswriter in the stands for this game, we even have a video to show you.
As David Dorsey wrote for News-Press, only 23 people were in attendance to see Moncada's first base knock, and only one of them was a fan -- everyone else was a player, a scout, and Dorsey himself. That's not a surprise, as extended spring training games aren't even played on the real spring training parks like JetBlue -- they're on the back fields, the ones that look like a well-kept high school field.
It's unclear how long Moncada is going to stay in extended spring training, but it might not be very long at all, with a move to Low-A Greenville possible as soon as this month. It'll be good to get him closer and closer to the point where we can see real highlights of the 19-year-old's talent in action, instead of just from a hand-recorded video behind a fence in some back lot field.