The Angels have reached an agreement with second-round pick Joe Gatto on a $1.2MM bonus — nearly $200K over the $1.0506MM slot value of the No. 53 selection — according to Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish (Twitter link).
Gatto ranked 42nd on Baseball America’s Top 500 draft prospects list and 43rd on the Top 200 list compiled by Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis of MLB.com. ESPN’s Keith Law noted in his review of AL teams’ draft choices that Gatto slipped off his rankings due to a volatile spring but noted that he does have the body and delivery scouts look for in a prep right-hander.
In their scouting report, BA noted that Gatto might be the most talented high school right-hander out of New Jersey since Rick Porcello back in 2007 or Jason Knapp in 2008, praising his 89-93 mph fastball that has been clocked as high as 95 mph. BA calls his delivery “easy and deliberate” but did note that he struggled with his command this spring and has some work to do on his curve and changeup. Callis and Mayo played up his projectable frame (they have him listed at 6’5″ and 215 pounds) as well as the run, sink and downward plane he can generate with his fastball.
The Halos have yet to come to terms with No. 15 overall pick Sean Newcomb, a left-hander out of Hartford, but they’d agreed to terms with 14 other draft picks as of this afternoon. They have a $5.774MM overall draft bonus, as reported by Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper.
