Leaf signs Yoan Moncada to autograph deal
By Chris Olds | Beckett Baseball Editor
Leaf Trading Cards has signed Boston Red Sox prospect Yoan Moncada to a multi-year autograph deal, the company announced on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old second baseman signed a record $31.5 million deal with Boston in February. In two seasons with the Cuban National Series, he hit .277 with four home runs and 28 RBI in 101 games. He’ll begin his season with the Class-A Greenville Drive after he finishes in extended spring training.
He made his debut there last week.
“The power of international players in the trading-card market is unquestioned. When it comes to doing whatever it takes to bring that talent to collectors, Leaf is second to none in sparing no expense to achieve this important goal,” said Leaf CEO Brian Gray in a prepared release. “The price to sign Yoan Moncada was unparalleled to date, however his talent is also unparalleled.
“We feel strongly that Moncada will be the player that takes the power of the Cuban players to the next level,” Gray said, “and I couldn’t be more excited to be part of commemorating this game changing player through our Leaf-branded trading cards.”
Leaf did not announce where Moncada will make his card debut.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazines. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
Happy that Leaf is sticking around and is run by an actual CEO that is a collector as well instead of the CEOs of Topps and Panini. Seems that Topps and Panini have become less about the quality of their products and more about who’s going to have the most expensive product with no regards to that actual value and quality of that product. Now that the collecting world is shrieking I see Topps and Panini continue to increase the use of sticker autos, single color “Event worn” patches, more parallels, overproduction of autos, and continue to limit release time of checklists to hide information from pre-order collectors.
“The price to sign Yoan Moncada was unparalleled to date…” – Meaning most likely, it’s too stiff a price for Topps to follow suit and give him a Bowman Chrome auto.