Adrian Morejon Highlight Video

Aside from the sheer volume of Cuban players leaving the island in the last year or two, one of the most striking aspects of the situation is how young many of those players are.

Several players from Cuba’s 15U World Cup team in 2014 are off the island already, including outfielders Lazaro Armenteros and Jonatan Machado and third baseman Miguel Vargas. These players are mostly still 16, the same age as the July 2 prospects who signed last year, yet they grew up in a completely different baseball culture than their peers from the Dominican Republic. While organized games are becoming more prevalent at the amateur level in the Dominican Republic, it’s not as organized as the junior national leagues in Cuba.

The game polish among the top young Cuban prospects relative to their age group stands out, especially in the case of 16-year-old lefthander Adrian Morejon. While Morejon doesn’t jump out for his size, his feel for pitching is well beyond his years, with good stuff to go with it, too.

In Cuba’s national 15U league in 2014, Morejon recorded 113 strikeouts in 68 innings (15.0 per nine innings), by far the most whiffs in the league. His 1.93 ERA ranked fifth, while he allowed 40 walks and 39 hits. Later that year, scouts watched Morejon pitch at the 15U World Cup in Mexico, where he was the tournament MVP and threw a complete game with 12 strikeouts and one walk in Cuba’s 6-3 victory over the United States in the gold-medal game. The highlights in the video above are all from that tournament, with games against the U.S. and a Venezuelan team that included top July 2 prospects from last year like Rockies outfielder Daniel Montano and Red Sox outfielder Albert Guaimaro.

Morejon touched 91 mph at that tournament, and more recently while training in the Dominican Republic, he has added a couple of ticks to his fastball and been getting into the low-90s with more consistency, with a good delivery and feel for his secondary stuff as well. While many teams are hesitant to invest much in 16-year-old pitchers, Morejon will likely be an exception.

“I like him,” said one scout. “He has a loose arm, quick arm speed, with a good curveball and really good feel for a changeup too. It he comes out of the draft, he’s a sophomore in high school. Two years from now, if the upside comes, he would be a first-rounder.”

Morejon isn’t a free agent yet, and the lack of action from the commissioner’s office to this point might end up benefitting Morejon by expanding his market. As July 2 gets closer, it’s more likely that a Cuban player subject to the international bonus pools like Morejon would be willing to wait to sign until July 2, when the 2016-17 signing period opens and the new bonus pools kick in, paving the way for a team that’s not willing to surpass its current 2015-16 pool but might do so next year to go after Morejon. While sources once considered the Cubs the favorites to sign Morejon, now it’s growing more likely that Morejon could sign elsewhere and wait until July 2. After all, aside from people wanting to get paid faster, there’s not much rush when it comes to a 16-year-old.