Yesterday afternoon (4pm CT, specifically) was the deadline for teams to sign this year's draft picks. Every first round and supplemental first round pick signed except for Stanford right-hander Mark Appel, who turned down the Pirates as the eighth overall pick. Here's a round-up of some post-draft links…
- Jim Callis of Baseball America lists the four compensation picks for next year's draft. The Pirates will get the ninth overall pick for Appel while the Mets (76th overall), Phillies (96th), and Athletics (supplemental third round) will also receive picks for failing to sign players before yesterday's deadline.
- The deadline does not apply to college seniors with college eligibility remaining, so Preston Tucker (seventh round, Astros), Jarret Leverett (15th, Twins), and Tyler Olson (17th, Athletics) are still eligible to sign at any time according to Callis (on Twitter).
- The Mariners offered 30th round pick Mike Yastrzemski a $300k bonus according to MLB.com's Peter Gammons (on Twitter), but he decided to return to Vanderbilt to finish his degree. Mike is the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski.
- Fifteen picks in the top ten rounds remained unsigned as of 15 minutes prior to the deadline, and Callis explains what happened with each of them.
Now Appel will go to a lower slot next year due to his unwillingness to sign. Sounds like a lose/lose to me.
That or hurt himself because of colleges coaches keeping him out for 150 pitches a night.
Actually he’ll lose leverage for simply being a college senior. Being a college senior to don’t have that threat that you have something better to hold on to. He certainly won’t have an option that will pay better than $3.8M.
I really think the kid fell victim to Boras who’s using him to make a point about the new slotting system.
Boras didnt have a gun to his head, hes a grown up, at the end of the day it was his choice.
I’m gonna laugh when this guy messes it all up and can’t get no money. Talk about being greedy. He’s getting big league money thrown at him and he’s gonna act like he deserves more? Pretty risky move on his part if you ask me.
so what is the appel/ boras message, if you are not going to pay me 8-10 mil, don’t draft me? I am guessing at the 8-10 mil since he turned down 6 and 3.8 mil
Red Sox should have drafted Mike Yaz out of respect… come on, 30th round.
They already did.. 36th round of 2009
Yaz’s grandson made a promise to his dad to graduate from college and he is keeping that promise. His dad passed away a few years ago.
Thanks for the reminder… I forgot about that.
My take is Boras is using this kid to make a statement of unfair pay to drafted players. Reminds me of a rockies pitcher who didn’t sign and ended up playing in the independent league and hurt his arm. I am guessing Boras will file a complaint over it but nothing will come of it. The only loser will be Appel losing a year closer to FA because of Boras.