Breaking news: White Sox to sign Dayan Viciedo

November 21, 10:10 AMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

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Dayan Viciedo defected to the U.S. in June of 2008.

Phil Rogers is reporting that the White Sox and 19-year-old Cuban third baseman Dayan Viciedo have agreed to terms.

The contract is reported to total about $11 million. I'll update this article once more details come out, but the White Sox hopefully have just signed a top-level third base prospect.

For now, though, it's all about Day Man. (Don't worry, there's no objectionable content in the clip)

Update, 10:05 PM: Jim at Soxmachine has a nice little post of his thoughts up at his site. Be sure to check out the Baseball America scouting report on Viciedo, too.

Update, 12:14 AM: Cheat over at SouthSideSox has his reaction up, and to tell you the truth, the last paragraph sums up exactly how I feel about the signing:

"So, is this a good signing?

The truth is, I don't know. The Sox didn't sign Viciedo looking to lock up some talent for a below market value. They signed him (or rather will sign him) to add more talent to their system. Period. The major league contract and the limitations that such a contract brings would seem to indicate their faith in Viciedo's talent, but the contract's overall value means Viciedo has to produce and produce relatively quickly to justify such a price. It's a substantially riskier signing than your average top prospect."

Viciedo is an unproven talent, plain and simple. Nobody really knows how he'll perform until about halfway through 2009—and that's just for the beginning of his minor-league career. Viciedo was not brought in to make an immediate impact, and if you're thinking "well, neither was Alexei Ramirez," then you're way off. When he signed with the White Sox last year, Ramirez was far more polished than the 19-year-old Viciedo. And while nobody expected the kind of impact Ramirez eventually had, there was far more reason to believe that he could do it quicker than Viciedo.

However, like Cheat said, Viciedo needs to produce quickly. Not at the MLB level immediately, of course, but he'll have to produce wherever he begins his professional career in the minors to justify the signing.

And that's what makes the Viciedo signing risky. This situation iis similar to expecting a high schooler to have a ton of success a year after being drafted, but with an $11 million price tag on his head. Maybe Viciedo is up for it. However, if he busts, the White Sox will have a guy making arond $2-3 million a year (presumably) wallowing away in the minor leagues. While that may not seem like a ton, that's enough to bring in an under-the-radar player who could contribute (see: Tadahito Iguchi, AJ Pierzynski, and Dustin Hermanson in 2005).

Despite all this, I like the Viciedo signing. While the White Sox have not had a lot of luck drafting over Kenny Williams' time as GM (look at Joe Borchard, for example), they have had luck signing foreign players, from Ramirez to Iguchi to Shingo Takatsu. Granted, that doesn't mean at all that Viciedo will have success, but I have a feeling of confidence when Williams and his scouts are dealing with foreign players who have not played in the majors.

Viciedo should enter 2009 as the second-best hitting prospect in the White Sox system, right behind Gordon Beckham. If all goes well, he'll surpass Beckham as the organization's best hitting prospect after 2009—and that's not a knock on Beckham at all, more of an indication of what kind of talent Viciedo could possess.

My final thought on this before I get some rest before my long drive from Columbia, Mo., to Chicago tomorrow: maybe this move, coupled with the acquisition of Wilson Betemit, will light a fire under Josh Fields, who looked awful last year after losing the third base job to Joe Crede in spring training (not because Crede outperformed him, remember, but because the White Sox could not find somebody to take Crede off their hands). While Williams has said that the third base job is Fields' to lose, maybe the Viciedo signing will make Fields realize that, if he does not perform up to expectations in 2009, his future as a pro baseball player will be substantially less bright, if it exists at all.

Update, 10:10 AM: Phil Rogers of the Tribune has a nice article up on the White Sox "Cuban Pipeline" that has emerged over the last few years. While the White Sox aren't guaranteed to sign every player that comes out of Cuba in the near future, they already have an "in" with future defectors. It's kind of like a college football recruiting pipeline, and players like Ramirez who can sway players from his homeland are key in its success.

Rogers' sources are also saying the deal for Viciedo will be worth $10 million, not $11 million as originally rumored.