ST. PETERSBURG, FL - AUGUST 29: Manager John Farrell #53 of the Boston Red Sox looks on from the dugout during the fourth inning of a game against the Tampa Bay Rays on August 29, 2014 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images) Manager John Farrell #53 of the Boston Red Sox (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images)

By Tony Massarotti

Until relatively recently, you had never heard of Yoan Moncada. In all likelihood, you still have not seen him play. So for the purposes of this exercise, let’s change the man’s name so that everyone can better grasp how the Red Sox just took baseball’s competitive balance rules and turned them upside down.

Let’s call the man Bryce Harper.

There. Does that help? Just 19, Moncada is a switch-hitting phenom who left Cuba to pursue a career in the major leagues. Many have said that, if eligible, he would have been the No. 1 pick in the coming June draft. Moncada is somewhere around 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, and baseball people regard him as a freakish, five-tool specimen who currently plays in the middle of the infield and is athletic enough to play just about anywhere.

Two days ago, I reached out to two separate major league evaluators after news broke that Moncada was headed to the Red Sox. Neither evaluator is from Boston. One is from the American League and one is from the National League. I am making that clear only so that no one thinks that said “evaluators” are Red Sox officials trying to justify why they just coughed up $63 million for a teenager.

Both endorsed the signing with little hesitation or reservation.

So what’s the issue? When baseball owners and players agreed to their last collective bargaining agreement, one of the more significant objectives was to address the inequities in the international marketplace. For all of the advantages that big-market teams have had in free agency over the years, baseball has at least tried to address some of them, however effectively. Revenue-sharing mechanisms were put into place. And we all know about the CBT – the competitive balance tax – more commonly known as the luxury tax.

But in the amateur marketplace, prior to 2012, big-market teams still had an absurd advantage. The Red Sox were one of the teams that exploited that edge as well as anyone. During Theo Epstein’s tenure as Red Sox general manager, the Red Sox managed to both win two world titles and amass an inordinate number of draft picks in the first two rounds. They manipulated the free agent market by parlaying free agents into compensation picks, which gave the Sox the best of all worlds. They spent. They won. They drafted relatively high.

And then, in the draft, the Sox targeted players like Will Middlebrooks, who slipped to the fifth round because everyone assumed he was going to college. The Sox gave Middlebrooks bonus money equivalent to that of a late first-round pick, luring him to professional baseball. Another win for the Red Sox.

So you know what baseball did the last time the bargaining agreement came up? They changed the compensation rules. They put limits on draft spending. And they created international signing rules – and penalties – in the absence of an international draft, the latter of which remains a longer-term objective.

And so along came Moncada, whose price tag for many teams, including Boston, featured a preposterous 100 percent tax. Think about that. Whatever a compliant team was willing to spend on Moncada, the Red Sox (and others) would have to pay double. And so you know what the Red Sox did? They outbid everyone anyway, paying Moncada $31.5 million and paying another $31.5 million in taxes, bringing their cash layout to $63 million for someone who has never played a minute of professional baseball on American soil.

So much for those competitive balance rules, eh?

Here’s the other thing: throughout baseball, the Red Sox are being lauded for it, because Moncada is seemingly that kind of rare talent. The last time the Red Sox did something like this, they paid a $51.1 million posting fee for pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, then signed him to a six-year, $52-million contract. Matsuzaka (like Middlebrooks?) has proven to be a relative bust, but that is hardly the point. The big-market teams still have as big an advantage as ever in the international marketplace, and they are doing everything they can to use it.

Hey, I’m from Boston. In this case, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. But how does this promote competitive balance?

One final note: when Moncada signed, Tampa Bay pitcher Drew Smyly tweeted about the unfairness of the international system, shaking his head at the notion that Moncada secured $31.5 million when the top player in the draft qualifies only for a signing bonus that is “one-sixth” that amount. Smyly’s tweet comes off as sour grapes, but he’s also right. At a time when baseball has regulated draft spending with slotted signing bonuses, the international market remains a free-for-all. Smyly’s tweet comes off as borderline xenophobic – oh, those poor Americans – but compliant, small- and mid-market teams should be agitated.

A few days ago, in Moncada, the Red Sox agreed to terms with a player who might have been the No. 1 pick in the draft. Last season, just months after winning the World Series, they dropped $72.5 million on Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo. They sank a combined $183 million into Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez during free agency and, come June, they will have the seventh pick in the draft for the second time in three years.

And people still think baseball is getting closer to competitive balance?

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Tony Massarotti covered sports in Boston for more than 15 years for both the Boston Herald and Boston Globe, and now serves as a co-host on afternoon drive on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston. He was a two-time Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year as voted by his peers and has written four books, including “Big Papi,” the New York Times-bestselling memoirs of David Ortiz. You can follow Tony @tonymassarotti.