9:12pm: Ben Badler of Baseball America writes that despite signing Zunino for well under the slot recommendation, the Mariners are $36,600 over their bonus pool for the first 10 rounds of the draft. Badler also gives a brief recap of Zunino's season, noting that he was Baseball America's College Player of the Year.
8:45pm: ESPN's Jerry Crasnick reports that Zunino will receive a bonus of $4MM — well below the slot recommendation (Twitter link).
8:32pm: The Mariners have signed No. 3 overall pick Mike Zunino, the team announced (on Twitter). A press conference to introduce Zunino will be held tomorrow.
Details of the signing are not yet known, but the recommended bonus for the third overall slot is $5.2MM. Over the weekend, we had heard that the Mariners were expected to sign the former University of Florida catcher in the near future. Baseball America says Zunino's hitting ability "projects to be above-average for a Major League catcher" while noting that he offers strong intangibles that draw Jason Varitek comparisons.
With the signing of Zunino, there are now eight first round picks who have yet to sign.
Yes, our plan to pay over slot value on the lower guys in hope that Zunino would accept a lower than slot bonus work out!
Haha glad he finally signed!
I wonder which over-the-hill, failing reliever the Mariners will get in return in a trade for Zunino and Dustin Ackley.
Think Heathcliffe Slocum is available this time of year, or should we go for
Spoljaric and Tomlin?
People keep talking about trading for prospects. Our system is loaded with prospects. Far beyond what you hear about in Paxton, Hultzen and Walker or Franklin. If you want to contend in the near future, trade some extra pieces for a cornerstone position player. I’d even think about trading Paxton and Franklin (plus maybe Carp and another young OF) for someone like Justin Upton. Build around him and Felix. When Jack Z acquired this team he had little to work with. Now our system is stacked and we our lacking major league talent. Go look at the numbers some of our minor leaguers are putting up.AA Jackson is a notoriously difficult place to hit. 2B Stefen Romero has been tearing it up since his call up from A+ High Desert (.385/.438/.677 over 17 games.) Drop down to High Desert you have guys like Brad Miller and Julio Morban raking. Albeit High Desert is a hitters paradise they are pacing a very good hitting club average by 40 points.If we are going to compete in the near future, we need a cornerstone position player. It’s likely not Justin Upton but prospects aren’t going to get us any closer.