The Padres and third-round pick Mason Thompson appear to have an agreement for a considerably over-slot deal, as MLB.com’s Jim Callis reports that the No. 85 overall pick will receive a bonus of $1.75MM (Twitter link). That’s more than double the slot value of $730,400, although as Callis notes, the high school righty out of Texas would likely have been a first-round pick had he not undergone Tommy John surgery. As such, Thompson likely required a considerably larger bonus in order to persuade him to sign as opposed to honor his commitment to the University of Texas.
Because of his injury, Thompson rated 105th on Baseball America’s Top 500 ranking of draft prospects and 109th on the Top 200 of Callis and colleague Jonathan Mayo at MLB.com. Both scouting reports note that Thompson was able to play this spring but was limited to hitting for the most part. He was able to throw some bullpen sessions for scouts, per MLB.com’s report, and Callis/Mayo note that he looked “as athletic and projectable as ever” in them. The 6’7″, 180-pound 18-year-old was able to run his velocity up to 94 mph when at his best, and BA notes that he shows a feel for a power curveball as well as a changeup with fade and deception. Both reports note that he is teeming with upside, so if he can make a full recovery from Tommy John (which, of course, is far from a guarantee — hence the slide), the Padres may very well have made a nice value play.
San Diego entered the draft with a $12,869,200 pool due to the fact that they possessed six of the first 85 picks in the draft (the team’s three natural picks, plus a Competitive Balance pick and a pair of compensation picks for the free-agent losses of Justin Upton and Ian Kennedy), and they’ve now reached agreement with a pair of those top six picks. The team announced last night that it had reached an agreement with Stanford righty Cal Quantrill, the son of former Major Leaguer Paul Quantrill and the team’s top overall selection. Quantrill, like Thompson, is recovering from Tommy John surgery, and MLB.com felt he might have been a top-of-the-draft consideration had he been fully healthy. The Padres look to have targeted a few players that slid due to injury concerns with the hopes of landing high-upside arms at “discount” spots in the draft, as even No. 71 pick Reggie Lawson had some injury concerns that might’ve harmed his stock.
Lawson is almost surely going to be over slot. Quantrill and Sanchez will be underslot and potentially by quite a bit, who knows how much exactly. Padres limit without giving up draft picks is 13,512,660. They will have money to go over 100 K for picks after round 10 like Tre Carter.
Preller did well with this draft. The only pick i thought was a sure reach was sanchez. But he got a lot of great talent. Moreso than what he gave up in trades aside from ross and turner.
Padres needed (and seemed to get) depth from this draft. The minor league system has a bunch of gaps that need to be filled. I am hoping they can grab several more players in the intl signing period.
Has there been a team with a worse draft strategy and success than SD? Cory Spangenberg and Trea Turner are the only 1st rounders who have panned out since 2004, and Turner isn’t even allowed to play in the bigs yet!
“Clown question, bro,” in the words of a more famous Nationals teammate of former SD first rounders Joe Ross (2011) and Trea Turner. Logan Forsythe (2008) has definitely “panned out” as one of TB’s better hitters, and Hunter Renfroe (2013) justifiably made this site’s top five “Knocking Down the Door…” list just this week.
So even if your measure of a good draft is how many of a team’s first rounders have become legitimate major leaguers since 2004, the Padres have done relatively well. Preller and the prior GMs’ bad habit of trading first-round talent has much more to do with their predicament than the draft selections themselves.
Did you forget about hunter renfoe? If youre gonna credit turner in limited mlb time and not renfoe whos a top 100 prospect as well, plus forget about joe ross who they drafted and developed, logan forscythe who developed late. Zach eflin whos tearing up triple a, drafted and developed, and travis jankowski whos the future at center thats 4 1st rounders you somehow neglected. Only reason jankowski isnt starting is upton and jay are building value for a trade and kemp cant be benched due to jow much hes making. .250/.357/.354 in a 4th outfield role plus great defense.
Also, corey luebke was an ace in waiting until multiple tjs derailed his career, drew cumberland retired due to a rare medical conditon if i remember correctly and was in the futures game and nick schmidt had his career derailed by tjs as well.
We needed a good Rule IV draft and now signings and hopefully some talented position players in the international signing period. Hope our scouts are up to the task because it is hard to watch the 2016 version of the team. The future is what I am clinging to.
It’s a good upside signing. Since the Padres probably won’t compete for a few years it gives him time to develop also without any need to rush him.
Love the Thompson signing. Let’s get Lawson signed and hopefully a couple late tough high school signs like Bishop or Rolison. Money talks.