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Braves lose more than talent in MLB crackdown on international market abuses

The penalties levied on the Atlanta Braves by the commissioner's office set the team's rebuilding process back a bit, but not as much as the sheer quantity of names involved might imply. It does, however, send a very clear message to other teams that the league might come down on the kind of shenanigans that have become routine in the international market -- including bundling players, for which the Boston Red Sox also were penalized two years ago -- since Major League Baseball started trying to regulate such signings six years ago.

MLB made 13 Atlanta minor leaguers, all signed in the 2016-17 period, free agents, with the most notable name among them Kevin Maitan, who signed for $4.25 million on July 2, 2016. (I'm using the publicly reported bonus amounts for players here, although the MLB investigation found that the freed players received additional, unreported money too.)