Posts in Bob Elliott
Elliott: Blue Jays add four Latin Americans to top bonus rankings

Latin America continues to be a baseball talent hotbed as well as a source of investment for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Vice-president Andrew Tinnish along with Sandy Rosario, director of Latin American operations, his assistant directors Harry Einbinder and Francisco Plasencia, plus cross checker Lorenzo Perez, added four signing bonuses of $200,000 or more led by Venezuelan C Juan Caricote, who was given a $1.95 million signing bonus.

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Elliott: Logan Allen, Canada's WBC mystery man

If the name Logan Allen is not known in households from New Westminster or Etobicoke, it is with good reason. He will make his debut wearing red and white at this year’s World Baseball Classic. You see the left-hander’s father Norman, grew up in Lachine, Que. playing hockey before moving to University of Florida, home of the Gators.

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ICYMI _ Elliott: Josh Naylor's parents knew early how good he was

This story has been among our top 10 reads every year — and it was 10 years old in June. It will make its 10th appearance when we run our 10 most popular reads from 2025.

It’s not that well written, but it’s been well read.

We run it again to honour Naylor winning his second Tip O’Neill award, presented by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys.

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Elliott: Halos' Bremner signing shakes up $ix-figure li$t, top 3 Canuck spenders: Orioles, Angels, Padres

David Calabrese no longer stands alone.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim selected the former Ontario Blue Jays OF Calabrese (Maple, Ont.) in the third round of the 2020 draft and gave him a signing bonus of $744,200.

For as long as we have been tracking six-figure signing bonuses given to Canadians, Calabrese was the only Canuck the Angels had deemed worthy of a $100,000 or more bonus.

So, the Angels sat 27th of 30 teams in giving out cold, hard cash -- or giant-sized checks -- to Canucks. That all changed in July. The Angels drafted RHP Tyler Bremner second overall in North America from the Santa Barbara Gauchos and gave him a $7,689,525 bonus.

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