BSA IFA History - Part 1 (Nassau June PR)

The s have combed through the historical records available in BSA, and produced some data on how much money teams in the league have spent on international amateur free agents since they started signing with teams in the 2020 season.  We welcome all corrections to the data presented, as it is certainly possible some of it is not 100% accurate, but it should be quite close.

Also, because most people won't read to the end, be sure to visit the data online at https://statsplus.net/bsa/ifa

Before we get too far with the data, some caveats:  

1. Before OOTP15, the game did have international free agents, but they were all "pro", and those players did not sign minor league contracts with a bonus.  Koyama of Irvine is an example of one of these "pro" guys, which are not counted in the data.

2. Some players sign, are really terrible, get released, and OOTP eliminates them from the database.  Those players are not included, either.

3. The $ amounts are just the bonuses payed to the players, and do not include the penalties/tax for going over the cap.

With that out of the way...

This PR will be in two parts, the first will focus on how many players teams have signed, and how much they've invested in those players.  

==== REAL PR STARTS HERE ====

Overall there are still 421 players in BSA that were signed as IFAs.  The total of all the bonuses payed to those players is a cool $305,628,234

Here's a single table summarizing how much teams have spent on IFA player bonuses, and how many players they have signed since IFAs started in 2020 in BSA, sorted by total spend.  Note that neither Chicago nor Orlando has signed a single IFA yet.

+----------------+------+-----------+--------------+

| Organization   | Year | # Players | Total Bonus  |

+----------------+------+-----------+--------------+

| Springfield    | 2025 |        29 |  $33,951,420 |

| St. Louis      | 2023 |        59 |  $32,515,000 |

| Nassau         | 2025 |        29 |  $17,079,000 |

| Baffin Island  | 2023 |         7 |  $16,800,000 |

| Niagara Falls  | 2021 |        10 |  $16,002,000 |

| Greenville     | 2023 |        40 |  $15,003,999 |

| Nashville      | 2027 |        11 |  $14,360,000 |

| Pocatello      | 2023 |        14 |  $14,190,000 |

| Irvine         | 2023 |        28 |  $13,763,000 |

| Plymouth       | 2023 |        16 |  $13,532,000 |

| Jersey Shore   | 2023 |        16 |  $13,062,000 |

| Kalamazoo      | 2025 |        16 |  $11,386,000 |

| So Cal         | 2022 |        12 |  $10,027,052 |

| Houston        | 2022 |        10 |   $9,773,000 |

| New Orleans    | 2021 |        22 |   $9,366,000 |

| Maui           | 2025 |         7 |   $8,812,000 |

| Fresno         | 2027 |         6 |   $8,150,000 |

| Austin         | 2023 |         9 |   $7,983,000 |

| El Dorado      | 2021 |         6 |   $7,295,000 |

| Seattle        | 2021 |         5 |   $6,977,000 |

| St Charles     | 2023 |        12 |   $6,512,500 |

| Kansas City    | 2023 |        13 |   $5,112,263 |

| Nevada         | 2023 |        24 |   $5,028,000 |

| Boston         | 2021 |        11 |   $3,999,000 |

| Vista          | 2023 |         4 |   $1,955,000 |

| New York       | 2025 |         3 |   $1,837,000 |

| San Francisco  | 2028 |         1 |   $1,092,000 |

| Beech Mountain | 2020 |         1 |      $65,000 |

+----------------+------+-----------+--------------+

Here's a list of the top 20 biggest bonuses handed out to players:

+------------------------+---------------+------+--------------+

| Player Name            | Signing Team  | Year | bonus        |

+------------------------+---------------+------+--------------+

| Javier Martínez        | St. Louis     | 2025 |   $5,560,000 |

| Juan De Jesús          | Jersey Shore  | 2025 |   $5,135,000 |

| Júlio Rodríguez        | So Cal        | 2027 |   $5,000,000 |

| Jesús Escobedo         | Baffin Island | 2028 |   $4,500,000 |

| Ramón Morales          | Baffin Island | 2023 |   $4,500,000 |

| José Castro            | Baffin Island | 2023 |   $4,500,000 |

| Víctor Cuevas          | Seattle       | 2026 |   $4,200,000 |

| Takuya Hayashi         | Springfield   | 2028 |   $3,690,000 |

| Gonzalo Martínez       | Springfield   | 2028 |   $3,690,000 |

| Alfredo Ruíz           | Niagara Falls | 2028 |   $3,560,000 |

| Germán Pérez           | Niagara Falls | 2028 |   $3,300,000 |

| Daniel Monares         | Niagara Falls | 2028 |   $3,200,000 |

| Andrés Vázquez         | Greenville    | 2020 |   $3,149,999 |

| Iván Lerma             | Nashville     | 2027 |   $3,120,000 |

| Francisco Medina       | Houston       | 2022 |   $3,000,000 |

| Guillermo Deleón       | Austin        | 2021 |   $3,000,000 |

| Javier Rentería        | Plymouth      | 2021 |   $2,500,000 |

| Gabresilassie Mujawayo | Pocatello     | 2027 |   $2,500,000 |

| Rafael Reyes           | Fresno        | 2027 |   $2,500,000 |

| Felipe Franco          | Springfield   | 2028 |   $2,500,000 |

+------------------------+---------------+------+--------------+

As the fantastic Vista Infographic PRs have show, a picture is better than a table of numbers.  Here are some screenshots of interactive data that is available now on S+ at https://statsplus.net/bsa/ifa.  On the website, you can click or hover on the years in the legend to see a single year or set of years in IFA spending, or hover on the bars to get a detailed breakdown for each team by season.

​

Of course, all this leads to the really important question.  What did teams get for all this spending?  

In Part 2, we'll dig further into what these players have done so far.  The oldest of them is only about 24-25, so not that many have reached the majors and had a big impact... yet.