The Dodgers have been in the news recently, in case you hadn’t noticed. In October, they won their first full-season World Series title in 36 years.
The following month, they signed two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million contract.
Since then, they’ve made other big offseason moves, re-signing slugging outfielder Teoscar Hernández, adding Korean star Hyeseong Kim and landing Japanese phenom pitcher Roki Sasaki.
While Sasaki was the jewel of this year’s international class, the Dodgers made another significant international move on Saturday, signing 17-year-old pitcher Joseph Deng, the first player from South Sudan to sign a professional baseball contract.
Deng, a 6-foot-7, 185-pound right-hander with a 95 mph fastball, is the second player to be signed from Africa this year, joining infielder Armstrong Muhoozi from Uganda, who signed with the Pirates.
At just 17 years old, Deng has plenty of time to fill out his tall and lanky frame, meaning that his impressive fastball could very well become even better, perhaps reaching triple digits in the years to come as he embarks on a trailblazing baseball journey.
