The Marlins have agreed to sign first round selection Andrew Heaney, Jim Callis of Baseball America reports. The Oklahoma State left-hander obtained a $2.6MM bonus just one day after an agreement seemed highly unlikely.
The Marlins selected Heaney with the ninth overall pick in last month's draft after he established himself as the best college southpaw available. MLB recommends a $2.8MM bonus for the ninth overall selection. There are now just four unsigned first round selections remaining.
They bluffed, he caved
Like hardball talk reported, “congrats on being really good on being cheap”.
Wow, who was his advisor? Thats pretty rediculous.
We’re talking 7% under slot here. That seems pretty reasonable really. Slot Street goes two ways. 1st rounders win some and they lose some.
All this new system did is inflate the bonuses of people in the mid-late first round and deflate the bonuses of people in the later rounds. What a silly system.
I think Appel has to sign now, he would take a huge risk by coming back out next year, why not get paid a year earlier and have the money in the bank instead of prolonging the risk. Also, how can you not want to be part of the Pirates future rotation? McDonald, Cole, Taillon, Appel, Heredia, plus any other prospect that plans out… My goodness.
This has absolutley no effect on Appel, there are no Gaussman’s (unless he goes back to school) or Zimmer level college pitchers in next years draft and Heredia has a great ceiling but at this point it is still more likely he doesn’t reach the majors.
If anything, this makes Appel less likely to sign. With Gausman and Heaney signing, Appel is more likely to be the top pick in next year’s draft.
Exactly and let’s not forget who is advising Appel. Boras has not shied away from taking his clients back into the draft, even as college seniors. Obviously it’s a bigger risk for Appel, but if he stays healthy he does have an opportunity to “better himself” (in quotes because him signing a more lucrative deal coming out of the draft doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be a more favorable situation long-term).
College seniors are the ones taking the hit becauae of the new CBA. It’s obvious if you want overslot money, you better go pro early. It would be a poor decision for Appel to go its the draft again next year, he would have no leverage.
People are putting this far too much on Boras, at the end of the day the agent won’t put pressure on the kid 1 way or another so they don’t get a bad reputation, it’s all Appel’s choice and maybe with some input from family and boras
i’m hoping appel doesn’t sign and then has a terrible season at stanford.
Marlins tricked Miami into taking less money for the stadium. Marlins tricked Heaney into taking less money to play. Typical Marlins.
There were some large scale changes to the Oklahoma State baseball program…not that it had anything to do with his decision to sign or not to sign.