The International Bonus Pool is the budget MLB clubs use to sign amateur foreign players — mostly Latin American teenagers and certain Asian imports. Each team gets roughly $5M–$7M per signing period.
Eligibility: under 25 and under 6 professional seasons. Players in this bucket sign minor-league deals with bonuses limited by the team's pool.
Roki Sasaki (age 23 / 4 NPB seasons when posted in 2025) qualified as an 'amateur' and signed with the Dodgers for at most ~$6.5M — far below his projected open-market value of 10/$300M+.
Kodai Senga, by contrast, was 30 when posted in 2023 — past the cap — and signed a major-league 5/$75M deal with the Mets. Age timing has enormous contract implications, making the post-or-wait decision pivotal for players.
→ Related: Posting system / Free agency / Minor-league contracts