NEW YORK — Venezuelan shortstop Luis Hernandez, the top-rated prospect in this year’s international amateur class, agreed to a deal Thursday with the San Francisco Giants on the first day of the 2026 international signing period after leaving the turmoil in his home nation for the Dominican Republic.
Hernandez, who turned 17 last month, will get a $5 million signing bonus.
“Our players that we were following or we’re going to sign were all safe. Luis, we got out of Venezuela through Curacao and came over to Dominican Republic,” Giants senior director of international scouting Joe Salermo said during a news conference.
Salermo said the political turmoil in Venezuela had minimal impact on the Giants’ operations.
“Our scouts stayed home for a couple days with the family until it was safe for them to go out on the road. Our players that we were following or we were going to sign are all safe,” Salermo said.
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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.
