Elian Peña, a shortstop who just turned 17, received a $5 million bonus for signing with the Metropolitans

Elian Peña, a shortstop from the Dominican Republic who just turned 17 in October, struck a deal with the New York Mets on Wednesday to receive a $5 million signing bonus, the highest amount on the first day of the 2025 international signing period.

Elian Peña is named the third rookie at international level this year by Major League Soccer.com, behind Japanese pitcher Ronki Sasaki (who must agree to a trade by Jan. 23) and Dominican shortstop Josuar De Jesus Gonzalez (who has a deal with San Francisco) for a signing bonus of $2,997,500.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays all wanted to sign Ronci Sasaki, but they didn't finalize any contracts with more than $10,000 in bonuses, which count toward their signing bonuses, with only half of the 30 teams completing deals of more than $100,000 at the start of the signing period.

No. 4 Dominican outfielder Cris Rodriguez signed with the Detroit Tigers for $3,197,500, and No. 5 shortstop and fielder Andrew Salas signed with the Miami Marlins for $3.7 million, who was born in the United States and later moved to Venezuela.

Eighteen-year-old Shotaro Morii, who hopes to become a double-cutter like Shohei Ohtani, made the rare decision to bypass Nippon baseball altogether and agreed to the Athletics to pay $1,510,500 to a contract with signing bonuses.