Cubs Deal With Altered Rules

CHICAGO—Almost as soon as they took over the organization in the fall of 2011, Theo Epstein and his front-office team faced such a significant alteration in the amateur signing rules that they recalculated their plans for rebuilding the farm system.

Five seasons later, it’s hard to argue that any team has capitalized to a greater extent on those new rules ushered in by the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Now fresh off the franchise’s first World Series championship in 108 years, it’s worth watching how this management team navigates an even stricter set of amateur spending rules under the just-ratified CBA.

“Bargain shopping?” mused Jason McLeod, the club’s top scouting and player development executive. “The CBA hamstrings us. Some of the larger-market teams just don’t have the same pool of money to spend. But it doesn’t change. It goes back to the process.

“Whether we’re scouting domestically or internationally, we’re still going to lean heavily on the scouts, we’re still going to lean heavily on the evaluation process and the background (of the player).”

The new hard cap on bonuses for international amateurs means no more every-other-year obliteration of allotted spending pools for the Cubs and other free-spending teams.

The difference in rules could be huge. In the summer of 2013, the Cubs exceeded their bonus pool of $8.2 million to land a touted international class that included Venezuelan shortstop Gleyber Torres and Dominican outfielder Eloy Jimenez, who signed for a combined $4.5 million and now rank as two of the top prospects in baseball.

Under the new rules?

“There might not be a year where we can sign Torres and Jimenez in the same (signing season),” McLeod said. “And if we are going to go big on one player, we have to understand that means we only have $50,000 to sign a bunch of other guys.”

CUBBYHOLE

• Former Oklahoma State righthander Thomas Hatch, the Cubs’ top pick last year (third round), could open the season at high Class A Myrtle Beach. He did not pitch last summer as the Cubs managed his workload.

• The Triple-A Iowa rotation projects to include lefthander Rob Zastryzny and righthanders Eddie Butler, Jake Buchanan, Aaron Brooks and Williams Perez.

— Gordon Wittenmyer covers the Cubs for the Chicago Sun-Times