Braves interested in Luis Robert, per report

There is not a week that goes by that we don’t get asked a few questions about the Braves interest (or lack thereof) in the recently-declared-eligible to sign Cuban prospect Luis Robert.

Robert is one of the few remaining high level Cuban prospects that have yet to sign with a team due to him just recently being declared eligible to sign in this signing period by Major League Baseball after declaring residency elsewhere. The 19 year old outfielder has tantalizing raw power and is advanced at the plate for his age. However, early reports from Baseball America’s Ben Badler and others have said that the Braves have not appeared to have much interest in Robert thus far.

Today, it appears that that the Braves’ interest appears to be less muted for the moment

There are definitely some barriers to signing Robert for the Braves, in particular the fact that since they are over the pool limit for this signing period due to the signings of Kevin Maitan and others means that the Braves would essentially have to pay double to sign Robert.

That said, many of the teams (such as the Dodgers for one) that have historically thrown money around are unable to sign Robert because they are already in the penalty and cannot sign high dollar players. There are teams like the White Sox and Astros who have shown more interest in signing Robert, but with the Braves soon to have two years where they will be severely limited in their international signees, its possible that they could make the bidding at least interesting for Robert’s services.