• Associated Press

Jan 15, 2026, 09:12 PM ET

NEW YORK — Venezuelan shortstop Luis Hernandez, the top-rated prospect in this year’s international amateur class, agreed to a deal Thursday with the

Salermo hopes Hernandez can advance quickly and perhaps skip the Dominican Summer League and start with a U.S. minor league team.

“He is above his age for his maturity,” Salermo said. “He has a very strong character. He’s worked hard at the game. He is a professional through and through. He plays golf. Think about it. A 16-year-old, a 17-year-old in Latin America playing golf, you could see the advancement that he has had with his maturity.”

Hernandez was followed at $4 million by both Dominican shortstop Johenssy Colome with the Athletics and Venezuelan outfielder Francisco Renteria with the Philadelphia Phillies.

More than 170 players finalized deals at the start of a signing period than runs until Dec. 15.

Colome was ranked the fifth-best prospect in the class by MLB.com and Renteria was third behind Hernandez and Puerto Rican shortstop Wandy Asigen, who agreed to a $3.9 million bonus with the New York Mets.

Other agreements included Dominican outfielder Angel Nuñez and Cincinnati ($3 million), Venezuelan outfielder Angeibel Gomez and Kansas City ($2,797,500), Dominican outfielder Emanuel Luna and St. Louis ($2.3 million) and Venezuelan catcher Manuel Bolivar and Detroit ($2,297,500).

Players born from Sept. 1, 2008, through Aug. 31, 2009, are eligible to sign during this year’s period, which ends Dec. 15.

Teams started with allotments of $5.44 million to about $8.03 million and can increase their total by up to 60% with trades. The Mets started with the low figure and acquired $1.5 million of allotment from Cleveland on Thursday for left-hander Franklin Gomez.

Russian catcher Ricardo Pulles agreed to a $60,000 bonus with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who signed German left-hander Tom Apfelbaum for $197,500.

Philadelphia agreed to a $20,000 deal with Japanese pitcher Alexandre Moretti and a $10,000 bonus with Italian infielder Patrick Silva, and Pittsburgh agreed to a $30,000 bonus with Brazilian right-hander Pietro Albanez.