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.
