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Padres still among teams in the lead for Moncada

By jbox
Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

I saw @PadresProspects tweet a link yesterday to JonHeyman's story about the Padres still being among the teams in the lead for Cuban phenom Yoan Moncada.  The shocking thing is that the other teams are the Yankees, the Red Sox and the Dodgers, the richest teams in baseball.

Yankees, Red Sox, Padres may lead on Moncada; Dodgers 'lurking' - CBSSports.com

The Padres are a small-market teams, too, but they are in the process of changing that perception in a winter where they signed an entire outfield of sluggers and added ace James Shields. Said one executive whose team is in play for Moncada, "I don't know where they're getting the money."

As we discussed earlier, if the Padres were to sign Moncada they'd have to pay double due to penalties they'd incur by overspending their international bonus pool. So they'd be expected to pay in the $60-80 million range for him.  Which begs the question, where are the Padres getting all of this money suddenly?

You may not remember but the Padres do have an owner in Mexico.  He's a successful businessman and to my knowledge the only member of the Padres ownership group on Twitter. I remember vetting him when the sale of the Padres took place.  One thing jumped out at me right away, he was kidnapped and held for ransom 20 years ago.

Alfredo Harp Helú - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1994, Harp's family paid about $30 million after he was held for 106 days by his kidnappers in Mexico City.

My nutty conspiracy theory is that he's being held hostage again, in secret, by the Padres!  Whenever the Padres need to expand their payroll they collect a ransom from him.  Don't dismiss this right away, just let it take seed in your subconscious until you forget where you originally read it and you start to believe it's true.

UPDATE:

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