Today is the first day of the 2026 International Free Agency signing period in Major League Baseball, which means contracts that were agreed upon sometimes more than two years ago finally come to fruition and become official. The IFA window is open until December 15th, but typically you see the majority of signings coming on this very first day of the window.

Now, you won’t have to go far on the internet to find me poo-pooing on the system that’s currently in place. Whether it’s ridiculing the embarrassingly low success rate the Cubs have shown over the past 11 seasons or the macro of it all, where handshake agreements are made with 13-year-old children or the fact that IFA signings are unfairly placed in a Rule 5 and MiLB free agency timeline that forces teams to unfairly rush their development… sheesh, let’s slow down.

The Cubs are expected to take a different approach to this year’s class. It’s typical for them to spend large chunks of their bonus allotment (this year it’s $6,679,200) on a small few, with those guys each receiving seven-figure signing bonuses. This year, it appears just one player will get north of $1 million, according to Baseball America, and five more coming in north of $600K but under a million.

I’m here today to celebrate these signings. There are players signing contracts to join the Chicago Cubs organization and that’s super exciting. And because I often don’t show enough love to these guys in the lowest levels of the system, let’s track these guys as word comes in that they’ve put pen to paper! Players are sorted below alphabetically:

Franyel Almanzar — SS/2B, Dominican Republic, Expected to sign for around $600K

Xavier Cadiz — SS/2B/3B/CF, Venezuela

Johan Geraldo — SS, Dominican Republic, Expected to sign for around $600K

Eduardo Gonzalez — SS, Venezuela, Expected to sign for around $800K

Jaims Martinez — SS, Cuba, Expected to sign for around $800K

Yadier Muñoz — SS/2B, Dominican Republic, Expected to sign for around $1M

Yanfri Serrano — OF, Dominican Republic, Expected to sign for around $800K

Luis Tomas — SS, Dominican Republic