Dodgers Rumors: Emil Morales Signs Contract; No. 14 Ranked International Prospect

The Los Angeles Dodgers' busy offseason continued Monday with the franchise picking up a highly-touted international prospect.

Jessie Borek and Jesús Cano of MLB.com reported that the Dodgers had signed Emil Morales, the No. 14 overall international prospect, during the opening hours of the 2024 signing period.

Morales hails from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain and is a 17-year-old, 6'3", 180-lb shortstop who bats and throws right-handed. His prospect profile describes him as a "big-bodied prospect with the potential to develop into a difference-making power bat."

The Dodgers were granted a base signing pool of $5.284 million for signing international free agents but it is unknown how much of this has been delegated to Morales.

The signing comes in an offseason that has already seen Los Angeles get several key contributors. The Dodgers were able to sign Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Teoscar Hernandez in free agency while acquiring Tyler Glasnow via the trade market and subsequently extending him.

These additions come to a team that already had the likes of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw and went 100-62 in the regular season. While that did not translate to postseason success, it's still a Dodgers team that won the World Series in 2020 and these moves make the franchise a clear favorite to take it home in 2024.

While signing Morales won't contribute to that goal this season, he could be a factor several years in the future as players like Ohtani, Yamamoto, Betts, Freeman and Glasnow get further into their contracts.