Blue Jays’ top international free agent investment is a Venezuelan catcher

January is usually an important month for many MLB teams as not only does it mark the halfway point of the offseason, but it is also the time when international free agent signings take place. This year, the MLB international signing period opened up on Thursday, and the Toronto Blue Jays were in action once again to acquire some promising prospects.

But among the international free agents that the Blue Jays managed to secure, they put their biggest investment into a young Venezuelan catcher named Juan Caricote by giving him $1.95 million in signing bonus money, as per Francis Romero. That was despite the fact that Caricote was ranked outside of the Top 50 international prospects list from MLB.com, which speaks volumes of how much the Blue Jays believe in his future potential. 

Blue Jays’ top international free agent investment is a Venezuelan catcher

According to Baseball America, as per Blue Jays Daily News, Caricote possesses a well-balanced set of skills behind the plate and in the batter’s box. He is also both athletic and agile, enabling him to be a high-level receiver that’s comfortable in handling pitches with high velocities.

In handing Caricote the largest amount of bonus pool money this time around, it makes it the third time in five years that the Blue Jays has done so for an international catching prospect with Franklin Rojas ($997,500) in 2024 and Luis Meza ($2.25 million) in 2022.

Taking a look at the Blue Jays young catching depth within the organization, it makes total sense why they are putting a lot of their investment into the position. After losing Gabriel Moreno and Danny Jansen in recent years, it had left the organization a bit thin on catchers coming up from their minor league system. In fact, the Blue Jays currently have only one catcher within their top 30 prospects in the organization, according to MLB Pipeline, with Edward Duran at No. 13.

Duran, who has reached as high as High-A in 2025, is still years away from making an impact at the major league level. By adding further top prospects at the catcher’s position, it will help build a stronger pipeline for the future of the franchise.

On top of that, don’t forget that the Blue Jays current star catcher is none other than Alejandro Kirk, who just so happens to be a smart international signing made by Toronto back in 2016. The Blue Jays will certainly hope that Caricote, or even any of their previous top international free agent catcher signings, could follow the same developing path as Kirk within the organization and ultimately become a useful contributor for Toronto at the major league level in due time.