The Guardian has found the league’s top left-back Franklin Gomez from the Mets, according to announcements from both clubs. The Mets get an international bonus pool in return. The cap to change hands is $1.5MM, reports Metsmerized’s Mike Mayer. Gomez does not have a 40-man roster spot, so no corresponding move is required.
Today marks the start of the 2026 international signing period. Baseball America’s Ben Badler tracks all the signed players as they become known. Under this pool system, each team has a limited amount of money to spend on international players. This year’s total pools are between $5MM and $9MM. Generally speaking, clubs in smaller markets get bigger pools and clubs in bigger markets get smaller pools.
The Mets were initially allocated a pool of $5.44MM and the relievers $8.03MM. Teams are allowed to trade pool space up to $250K, but a team cannot increase their initial pool size by more than 60%.
Adding a bullpen was important to the Mets. Most teams make verbal agreements and opportunities years in advance of official signings, so they’ve often agreed to give up most of the pool early on. The Yankees had a verbal agreement with Dominican Republic outfielder Wandy Asigen, but reports surfaced in December that he would sign with the Mets instead. BeisbolFR’s Franchys Romero and Badler covered the development at the time. Asigen officially signed with the Mets today for $3.9MM.
That signing bonus would take up most of the Mets’ starting pool. That may require the Mets to break their verbal agreements with other prospects. Mayer suggests that the deal with Cleveland allowed the Mets to have enough cap space to sign Venezuelan outfielder Kleiner Ramirez as part of this year’s class.
For the guards, it seems they would rather have Gomez than the pool. The 20-year-old Venezuelan was also an international signee a few years ago, earning just a $10K bonus from the Mets in 2022. He has increased his stock since then. Baseball America’s Matt Eddy recently wrote about Gomez earlier this month, noting that his fastball velocity peaked in 2025, going from an 89-90 mph range in 2024 to 92-93 last year. Some of his pitches also made the same jump.
He finished the year throwing 71 2/3 innings between Single-A and High-A, allowing a 2.76 ERA with nine earned runs. He struck out 22.1% of the batters he faced, issued walks at an 11.1% clip and induced grounders on 48.4% of balls in play. BA recently listed him as the #22 prospect in the Mets’ lineup, noting that he has the potential to be a future starter, with a role that will help him as a shortstop.
The Guards have failed to capitalize on their undrafted roster this year but Gomez should have plenty of potential to help them in the near term. Most of today’s international signings are 16 years old while Gomez is four years older than that and has already moved up through the minor leagues.
Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Imagn Images
