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2016 Amateur Draft Signings

Brewers Sign Fifth Overall Pick Corey Ray

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The Brewers have announced that they’ve signed fifth overall draft pick Corey Ray, an outfielder from Louisville. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports tweets that Ray will receive $4.125MM, giving the Brewers a modest savings against the $4,382,200 slot value of the fifth overall pick.

MLB.com ranked Ray the sixth-best talent available in this year’s draft, with Baseball America rating him seventh. MLB.com noted that he provided the “best combination of hitting and athletic ability” available in this year’s draft, praising his combination of power and speed, which resulted in 15 homers and 44 steals in a .310/.388/.545 junior season at Louisville. He mostly played right field in college, although he seems likely to get a shot at center field as a pro.

In April, MLBTR’s Chuck Wasserstrom spoke to Ray, who said he imagined himself as a future leadoff hitter. He also described being selected by the Mariners in the 33rd round in 2013 and ultimately deciding to go to college. “That dream was knocking on my door, and those were some pretty tough conversations with my father. He told me I wasn’t ready. All I was seeing was the dollar amount and not the big picture,” Ray said. As it turns out, it looks like he made a good decision, as he’ll now get a multimillion-dollar bonus and an immediate spot near the top of the Brewers’ list of top prospects.

White Sox Sign First-Rounder Zack Collins

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The White Sox have signed first-round draft pick Zack Collins, the club announced today. He’ll receive an at-slot bonus of $3,380,600, per Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago (via Twitter).

Collins was taken with the 10th overall selection out of the University of Miami, based largely upon his top-quality bat and outstanding results against strong competition in college. He is coming off of a season in which he not only took 69 walks while striking out just 48 times, but slashed .358/.534/.631 and swatted 13 long balls in 176 turns at bat.

That kind of hitting can play anywhere on the field, but it’s all the more impressive for a catcher. That said, many question whether Collins can stick behind the dish as a professional. The assessments vary somewhat, but it seems safe to say that it’s far from certain that he’ll end up donning the gear at the major league level — let alone that he’ll be a quality receiver.

Collins himself believes in his ability behind the plate, though, as he told MLBTR contributor Chuck Wasserstrom a few months back. “Obviously, I’m an offensive catcher,” he said, “but I’m working on my defense a lot lately. I think I’ve gotten a lot better defensively … I’ve worked a lot on my blocking and receiving and throwing and footwork – all that kind of stuff. We actually have a new catching coach down here in Miami (Norberto Lopez), and he’s helped me a ton.” 

Despite the defensive questions, Collins’ bat was good enough to draw top grades from prospect hounds. He ranked as high as 14th among draft-eligible prospects, in the eyes of MLB.com. And he also landed within the top twenty names listed by Baseball America and ESPN.com.

Tigers Agree To Terms With Matt Manning

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The Tigers and No. 9 overall draft pick Matt Manning have agreed to terms, reports MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo (via Twitter). The high school right-hander out of California will receive the full slot value of $3,505,800, according to Mayo.

Entering the draft, Manning was a consensus Top 15 prospect, with ESPN’s Keith Law rating him ninth on his final Top 100 ranking. Mayo and colleague Jim Callis rated Manning 11th in the draft, as did Baseball America on their Top 500 ranking. Athleticism runs in Manning’s bloodline, as his father, Rich, had a brief NBA career from 1995-97. Law notes that Manning needs a good bit of development but is “so athletic” that he’s well worth the associated risk. Manning himself was set to play both basketball and baseball at Loyala Marymount but will forego that commitment to begin his pro career with the Tigers. BA praises his 6’5″, 195-pound projectable frame and a fastball that sits 96-97 mph and is said to have reached 99 mph. Like BA and Law, Callis and Mayo feel that his secondary pitches — a curveball and changeup — need some work but have the potential to be above-average offerings.

The Tigers haven’t had a selection as high as ninth overall since 2009, when they also took a high school right-hander (Jacob Turner). Despite their No. 9 overall selection, the Tigers have a small draft pool this season thanks to the fact that they parted with their second pick in order to sign right-hander Jordan Zimmermann to a five-year deal and their third pick to sign Justin Upton to a six-year deal. (The top 10 selections in the draft are protected, so the Tigers retained the No. 9 pick despite signing a pair of qualifying offer free agents.) Those losses left the Tigers with a pool of $5,424,300, and they’ll have $1,918,500 to allocate to the remainder of their picks in rounds four through 10 (plus any over-slot deals for players selected beyond the 10th round).

Phillies Agree To Over-Slot Deal With Kevin Gowdy

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The Phillies have reached agreement on a well-over-slot bonus with 42nd overall draft pick Kevin Gowdy, per Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball (Twitter links). He’ll take home a $3.5MM payday, representing a significant boost over the $1,536,200 slot value.

Gowdy is a high school righty from Santa Barbara, California. He obviously caught the attention of the Philadelphia brass, which utilized savings from its deal with top overall pick Mickey Moniak to draw Gowdy away from his commitment to UCLA.

Philly lands a player that was rated the 24th overall draft prospect coming in by ESPN.com, which credited his quality breaking ball. He could eventually grow into a bigger fastball, per the report, though it remains to be seen how he’ll fill out his frame. And Gowdy’s third offering (a change-up) is said to need further development, along with his command.

MLB.com and Baseball America weren’t quite as hopeful of Gowdy’s future, with both ranking him just inside the top forty prospects. That’s not to say that those outlets don’t see the upside; all appear to agree that the tools are there for him to develop into a quality big league starter.

 

Astros Sign First-Rounder Forrest Whitley

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The Astros have announced the signing of first-round draft choice Forrest Whitley, via MLB.com. He’ll receive a $3.148MM bonus, per MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter). Whitley was taken 17th overall, which came with a $2,504,200 slot allocation.

A high school righty hailing from Texas, Whitley was a consensus top-twenty prospect entering the draft. MLB.com had him highest on its board, ranking him 12th on the basis of his outstanding results in a competitive environment and promising set of pitches. The towering hurler brings a mid-nineties fastball, power curve, and improving change-up.

ESPN.com ranked Whitley the 13th-best draft prospect available, while Baseball America was also quite bullish on his outlook in placing him 18th. None of the outlets really expressed any concerns, though the ESPN.com team suggested that there’s less to dream on than may be the case for other top young arms. As they put it, Whitley has “a fourth starter’s arsenal and a workhorse build,” but “there’s no projection here and Whitley has some stiffness and effort to his delivery.”

After several years worth of drafts in which the club was among the first in line and carried deep draft pockets, Houston fell back in the order due to its successful 2015 season. The resultant maneuvering was certainly less interesting as a result, as the team has thus far agreed to at-slot deals with second-rounder Ronnie Dawson and third-round pick Jake Rogers, but the organization also managed to avoid intrigue this time around. None of the team’s other reported signings have skewed too dramatically from the mean, though the ’Stros managed to stash some savings in order to add to the pile of cash headed Whitley’s way.

Mets Sign First-Rounder Justin Dunn

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The Mets announced the signing of first-round pick Justin Dunn, a righty out of Boston College. The 19th overall selection will receive an at-slot bonus of $2,378,800, per MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter).

Dunn rated as high as 14th among draft-eligible prospects, with ESPN.com giving him that lofty rating. He showed a big-time fastball from the pen and continued to show promise in a starting role after a mid-season shift. He features both velocity and movement on the heater, with a promising slider, usable curve, and developing change also in the quiver.

Others didn’t view him quite as highly, based in part on a relatively small frame and questionable command. Baseball America had him 22nd on its board, while MLB.com rated him 29th. Still, all recognize that he has a chance to turn into quite an interesting starter — with a back-up plan, perhaps, of featuring as a high-octane reliever.

Braves Agree To Over-Slot Deals With Picks No. 2-6

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JUNE 21: The Braves have also agreed to a $1.5MM signing bonus for No. 76 pick Brett Cumberland, MLBTR has learned (Twitter link). Cumberland, a catcher and draft-eligible sophomore out of Cal, receives a bonus that lands $661K over his slot value of $839,100. He ranked in the Top 100 draft prospects from BA, ESPN and MLB.com, with each praising him as one of the more advanced college bats in the draft but questioning his ability to stick behind the plate. Additionally, Callis reported over the weekend that fourth-rounder Bryse Wilson, a high school right-hander our of North Carolina, agreed to a $1.2MM bonus that represented a deal that was $653K over slot (Twitter link).

That means that the Braves’ second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth selections in the draft have combined to receive bonuses that exceed their pool allotments by a total of about $3.9MM. Atlanta also went $300K over slot for 11th-round pick Matt Bowland, as Callis tweeted last week. That’s a total of $4.2MM in excesses, although the Braves did save approximately $2.5MM by agreeing to a reported bonus of “about” $4MM with No. 3 overall pick Ian Anderson. And, as Callis and Jonathan Mayo have been tracking at MLB.com, the Braves have saved $134,600 on fifth-rounder Jeremy Walker, $281,600 on sixth-rounder Matthew Gonzalez and $219,700 on seventh-rounder J.B. Moss. Atlanta also has a string of college seniors at picks 8-10, and college seniors will often sign for about $10K.

The Braves entered this year’s draft with a $13,319,600 pool and bolstered that figure when they acquired a Competitive Balance pick in the Brian Matusz trade, bringing their total allotment to $14,158,500. They’ll be able to exceed that sum by about $797K without going into the penalty bracket that would force them to lose a future first-round pick. With the over-slot deals to their second through sixth picks as well as their 11th-rounder, the Braves have currently agreed to $13,760,000 in total commitments, placing them about $1.1MM shy of the threshold at which they’d lose a future first-round pick.

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Padres Agree To Terms With Reggie Lawson To Over-Slot Bonus

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The Padres have agreed to terms with competitive lottery Round B pick Reggie Lawson to a well-above-slot bonus, MLB.com’s Jim Callis reports on Twitter. The right-hander will receive a $1.9MM bonus that dwarfs the $905,900 slot allocation that came with the 71st overall selection.

San Diego was always expected to put a creative draft together with five selections before the start of the third round. The Friars saved a major portion of the pool value of the 24th overall choice, Hudson Potts, and have gone about redistributing it since. The Pads also went around $1MM over-slot for another high school righty in Mason Thompson. Among its other top selections, the team has still yet to agree to terms with Florida outfielder Buddy Reed.

Lawson, who hails from California, has shown a big fastball at a young age, though MLB.com’s prospect analysts suggest that his stuff hasn’t yet progressed as scouts hoped. They rated him as the 100th-best draft-eligible prospect, noting the evident upside but also the risk.

Other evaluators were more optimistic. ESPN.com rated him 63rd and Baseball America had him 56th. They pin their hopes on Lawson’s athleticism and quick arm, noting that he’s shown flashes of the kind of ability that’s normally found at the top of the board. San Diego obviously concurred, and paid up to keep Lawson from honoring his commitment to Arizona State University.

 

Phillies Sign Mickey Moniak

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The Phillies announced that they have agreed to terms with high school outfielder Mickey Moniak, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft earlier this month. Terms of his bonus were not disclosed by the team, but MLB.com’s Jim Callis reports that Moniak received a $6.1MM bonus (Twitter link). The No. 1 overall pick came with a slot value of $9,015,000 this season.

Moniak, who turned 18 just over a month ago, rated as the No. 5 overall prospect in the class on the pre-draft rankings of Baseball America, ESPN’s Keith Law and Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com. However, the bulk of mock drafts from those outlets in the days just prior to the draft had forecast that Philadelphia would indeed tab the California native as the top pick in this year’s draft.

Moniak had been committed to UCLA but will forego college and instead embark on his professional career. The aforementioned rankings heap praise onto Moniak for his hit tool, grading it as the top high school hit tool in the entire draft. He’s an above-average runner that is said to have great instincts in center field, and each of the reports above expresses confidence that he can stay there. Moniak doesn’t project to develop significant power due to a fairly slight frame, though Baseball America invokes a comparison to Marlins outfielder Christian Yelich — an outcome with which the Phillies would surely be thrilled.

The Phillies, per Callis, had an overall draft pool of $13,405,200, which was the second-largest among all big league teams this season. Because Moniak didn’t command the full value of that slot — and it’s worth noting that none of the players selected first overall have commanded full slot value since the current iteration of draft signing rules was implemented — the Phillies will be able to reallocate roughly $3MM worth of savings to later picks. Among the notable high school names drafted by the Phillies that may require over-slot deals to break college commitments are second-round pick Kevin Gowdy, third-round pick Cole Stobbe and 11th-round pick Josh Stephen.

Twins To Sign First-Rounder Alex Kirilloff

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The Twins have a verbal agreement in place with first-round draft pick Alex Kirilloff, ESPN 1500’s Darren Wolfson reports (Twitter link), and the deal will become official once Kirilloff takes his team physical later this week.  The 19-year-old first baseman/outfielder will receive the recommended bonus slot price (just over $2.817MM) attached to the 15th overall pick.

Kirilloff was also ranked as the 15th-best prospect in this year’s draft class on Baseball America’s top 200 list, with MLB.com ranking him 18th and ESPN’s Keith Law and Eric Longenhagen ranking him 19th.  MLB.com’s scouting report describes Kirilloff as a good fit for a corner outfield spot in the majors, though the Twins were “buying the bat” with due to Kirilloff’s “ability to barrel the ball consistently and…considerable raw power.”  The high schooler received consistent scouting grades for all five tool categories (hit, power, run, arm, field), with all five grades falling within the 50-55 range on the 20-80 scouting scale.

The Twins’ draft bonus pool of $8,153,500 was the 11th-highest of any club.  Minnesota has thus far reportedly reached below-slot agreements with both of their second round picks, while going $500K over slot for a deal with 11th-rounder Tyler Benninghoff.

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