Here are the day’s notable draft signings …
- The Rockies appear to have a deal in place with second-round pick Peter Lambert, who tweeted that he is en route to join the club’s Rookie affiliate. While a bonus remains unreported, Lambert was taken 44th overall, which came with a $1,395,200 slot allocation. The high school righty rated 48th on the board of Baseball America, which credited him with a nice three-pitch mix. Colorado also added fourth-rounder David Hill for a $550K bonus (a slight bump over the slot value of $533K), per MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter). The University of San Diego right-hander actually placed even higher than Lambert on BA’s list (44th), based upon his increasing velocity and promising slurve and change (though BA also noted that Hill will need to improve his control and consistency).
- The Nationals have agreed to terms with their first overall pick, second-rounder Andrew Stevenson, on a below-slot $750K bonus, James Wager of the Washington Post reports on Twitter. Stevenson, an outfielder out of LSU, was taken with the 58th overall choice ($1,058,100 slot value), which was awarded to the Nats for failing to ink last year’s second-rounder. MLB.com was higher on Stevenson than other outlets, ranking him the 79th-best player available and calling him “the best defensive center fielder in college baseball.” Per that review, Stevenson has a useful, if unexciting, offensive profile. Overall, the Nats have racked up quite a bit of savings on those players they have inked to date: $786,800 by my count. Only third-rounder Rhett Wiseman (who is playing for Vanderbilt in the College World Series as we speak) and eighth-round choice Koda Glover (a senior from Oklahoma State) have yet to sign from the first ten rounds, and it’s not immediately clear how (if at all) the team will utilize its extra bonus availability.
