Cespedes is within days of gaining his residency in the Dominican Republic. Once he does, Major League Baseball will declare him a free agent and the bidding can begin.

“Then anyone can make an offer who wants to,” said an American League executive who was not authorized to speak publicly about a free agent. “Compared to Darvish, this is going to be the Wild West.”

At least a dozen teams covet the 26-year-old Cespedes, who is built like Bo Jackson and has Vladimir Guerrero’s swing. He could command a contract worth more than $50 million, and the teams who may pursue him include the Miami Marlins, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Baltimore Orioles, the Toronto Blue Jays and, of course, the Boston Red Sox and the Yankees.

None, however, want to reveal their strategy regarding Cespedes’s impending free agency or publish their own scouting reports.

“We’ve seen him in international competitions and in workouts,” Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said. “We have our opinions and are aware of what he can do, but other than that, I wouldn’t comment any more.”

Certainly, all 30 clubs are well aware of Cespedes’s exploits: his speed in the 60-yard dash, his ability to track balls in center field and, most of all, his power to all fields as a right-handed slugger. Although Cespedes (pronounced CES-ped-es) has had only a few at-bats against major league pitching, in the World Baseball Classic, many talent evaluators think he could eventually separate himself from all previous position players who have defected over the past two decades from Fidel Castro’s Cuba. - http://www.nytimes.com