BALTIMORE — The days of trolling Latin America with flush checkbooks to sign 16-year-old talent are over. Now, teams are assigned a finite amount of money they are allowed to spend to acquire players.
The amateur signing process, which opens Tuesday, has served the Yankees well, but with $1.8 million to spend they haven’t been linked to every big name.
Gone are the days when the Yankees gave catcher Jesus Montero $2 million (later reduced to $1.6 million) to sign out of Venezuela in 2006 and Gary Sanchez, a catcher from the Dominican Republic, $3 million in 2009.
That $1.8 million is much less than the $4.9 million the Astros have to work with. Under the rules, the worst team from the previous year is allowed to spend the most.
With Venezuela shortstop Gleyber Torres (believed to have an agreement with the Cubs) and Dominican outfielders Eloy Jimenez and Micker Adolfo out of the Yankees’ financial reach, they have interest in center fielder Leonardo Molina and third baseman Rafael Devers, both from the Dominican Republic.
“They like all the players in the picture, but have an interest in Molina and Devers,’’ said a person with knowledge of the Yankees’ thinking.
* Joe Girardi is campaigning for Brett Gardner to be part of the AL All-Star team.
“I think he is worthy of being an All-Star,’’ the manager said of his center fielder and leadoff hitter. “Offensively, defensively, I believe he is an All-Star.’’
After going 2-for-5 in Saturday night’s 11-3 loss to the Orioles, Gardner is hitting a team-high .290, thanks to a 33-game stretch that started on May 24 in which he is batting .333 (43-for-129).
Gardner wasn’t among the top 15 outfield vote-getters in the most recent balloting, so he would have to be named as a reserve.
* Girardi said he doesn’t know when it will happen, but he believes the next step for Derek Jeter is to get into a minor league rehab game.
“Everything has been good,” Girardi said of Jeter’s recent workouts. “With simulated at-bats, a game [is next].’’
Asked if he assumed Alex Rodriguez and Jeter would need the maximum 20 days on a minor league rehab assignment, Girardi believed they would.
“They haven’t played at all — you have to build up and that takes time,’’ Girardi said. “You go day by day.”
* Because Ivan Nova was used for 5 2/3 innings of relief, CC Sabathia won’t get an extra day of rest this time through the rotation and will start Wednesday against the Twins in Minneapolis.
If Nova wasn’t needed in relief, he was going to be inserted into the rotation against the Twins in order to give all five starters an extra day of rest.
Now, the likely scenario is for Nova to start Thursday and Saturday night’s starter David Phelps to go Friday against the Orioles at Yankee Stadium.
* Though they have scouted him in Tijuana, Mexico, the Yankees aren’t in on Cuban right-hander Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, who is a free agent and not restricted to the same financial rules governing 16-year-olds.
“That looks like the Dodgers,’’ said a scout who was on hand to watch the 26-year-old, who is waiting on the U.S. government to clear his paperwork in order to sign.
Estimates of what it will take to sign Gonzalez have started at $40 million and gone as high as $60 million.
* Omar Luis, who also goes by Omar Luis Rodriguez, pitched a simulate game yesterday in Tampa. The Yankees invested $4 million in Luis, a 20-year-old lefty from Cuba, last June,. He spent eight months in Haiti waiting for the U.S. government to approve his immigration documents and packed on pounds to a 5-foot-11, 205-pound frame because his workouts were limited.
* Robinson Cano’s 5-for-9 start to the series is nothing new for him at Camden Yards. Cano is a career .364 with 12 homers and 37 RBIs in 71 games at the hitter-friendly park. Since Aug. 22, 2008, Cano is hitting .426 in Baltimore with 11 homers and 27 RBIs in 44 games.