Rangers Pay $5 Million To 16 Year Old

The Texas Rangers paid a record $5 million bonus to 16-year-old Latin American prospect Nomar Mazara. Mazara is from the Dominican Republic, and was not eligible for the MLB draft. The A's, Blue Jays, and Red Sox were all interested in signing the 16-year-old prospect, but the Rangers won the bidding war. Here is more from David Brown of Yahoo! sports.

Mazara will have to face his aversion someday soon. In the meantime, the $5 million should give him some ability to pay the family's bills, if not hit a breaking ball.Anytime you hear "16 years old" and "millions of dollars," it's natural to pause, or even shake your head violently "no!" and tell them to go to their room.

As Larry Brown Sports argues, 16 seems awfully young for anyone to know if a player will develop into a major leaguer — let alone if someone is worth a $5 million bonus.

Indeed it is. Mazara isn't even playing in the baseball majors of the Dominican Republic. He must be an incredible prospect, but it's impossible to know if he'll pan out at this point.

The best case scenario for the Rangers is that Mazara is ready for MLB play in 2016. Any expectations sooner than that would be unrealistic.