Dermis Garc\u00eda. Wilkerman Garc\u00eda. Raimfer Salinas. Antonio Cabello. Alexander Vargas. Oswald Peraza. Hans Montero. Hoy Park. Have you heard of them recently? Do you remember them?<\/p>\n
A few of of them reached the majors, yes, or had moderate success in the minors in 2025, but in all fairness, their careers haven\u2019t developed the way they wanted. Some fans might even include Brando Mayea and Roderick Arias in that group, but they still have a chance to have an MLB career. It\u2019s important to note, however, that the former hasn\u2019t made it out of the Complex League, and the latter had an 88 wRC+ in 465 plate appearances in Low-A last year \u2014 his second in a row there.<\/p>\n
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Those are some of the highest-profile international free agency busts in recent memory, with some of them collecting bonuses as high as $4 million. The Yankees\u2019 system, however, was also damaged by the signings that didn\u2019t take place, or the ones they lost through the years: it seems that, except for Jasson Dom\u00ednguez, they haven\u2019t had an amateur free agent making a real impact since maybe Luis Severino, and he was signed in 2011. One could certainly pick nits at Dom\u00ednguez\u2019s level of impact as well.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to point the finger at the players in this group: they were 16 or 17 at the time of signing their contracts, getting hefty bonuses that changed their lives for better or for worse. They often fell victim to huge and unfair expectations for prospects of that age. In the end, their failure to establish themselves as major leaguers was hardly their fault. Of course, maybe one or two of that group could have achieved more and didn\u2019t have the fortitude to make it happen. That\u2019s baseball, Suzyn. However, the Yankees\u2019 employees making the decisions and paying the bonuses on the team might have misjudged their talent and failed to give them the tools to succeed.<\/p>\n
Those misses likely led to the organization parting ways with Donny Rowland, their director of international scouting since 2010. To replace him, the Yanks recently appointed Mario Garza, whose experience didn\u2019t come in scouting per se, but instead, in player development and coaching.<\/p>\n
Garza hopes to leverage that knowledge and experience into a solid job in his new position. He speaks Spanish and, per Brendan Kuty of The Athletic<\/a>, learned how to build lasting relationships with Latin American players. The Yankees have a lot of ground to make up on the race to dominate the Latin American market, but they feel Garza\u2019s ability to communicate and generate trust can result in more quality signings.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Garza is also willing to lean on smart, prepared people to reclaim their place as a preferred landing spot for Asian players. The West Coast teams\u2014mainly the Dodgers\u2014have nabbed most of the elite Japanese and Korean talent in the last few years, including some players the Yankees pursued, such as 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto.<\/p>\n