The Twins have taken high school infielder Royce Lewis with the first overall pick of the 2017 amateur draft, as Keith Law of ESPN.com suggested on Twitter and John Manuel of Baseball America tweeted would occur. The selection is the first for the organization’s newly installed front office, led by chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine.
With the draft clock ticking down, reports suggested that Minnesota had whittled it down to two possibilities: Louisville two-way star Brendan McKay and Lewis. But McKay’s camp declined to take the bonus that Minnesota was offering him, according to MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter), leaving the team to move on.
The 18-year-old Lewis is seen as a highly projectable talent who may thrive in center field even if he can’t stick at short. He hails from California’s JSerra Catholic High School. MLB.com’s team of Callis and Jonathan Mayo joined Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs in ranking Lewis as the fifth overall prospect on the board. Baseball America had him at seventh.
High-school righty Hunter Greene and Vanderbilt starter Kyle Wright have drawn the most votes as the top overall player available. But every team’s assessments are different. And maximizing an overall draft requires bonus pool management. The first overall slot came with over $7.7MM in total spending capacity, some of which will likely be allocated to other selections.
Probably the safe pick right?
Safe how? Signing immediately I’d presume.
More projectable, cheaper.
And below slot.
Not expecting that one
Teams are not shying away from high schoolers #1 anymore.
Signability pick. He’ll sign underslot.
You don’t underslot the #1 pick lol
You usually always underslot the #1 pick hahaha that’s the reason they took him there anyway
Uh yea u do. Ask Carlos Correa.
Every number 1 pick since 2012 has been an under slot pick.
Every team has paid under slot for the #1 pick since MLB created the modern slot system.
Yeah you do. Look how great Correa turned out, which also allowed them to get McCullers
Astros tried to under slot Brady Aiken TWICE lol- the whole ordeal was well documented and cost them Jacob Nix. https://www.si.com/mlb/2014/07/23/houston-astros-number-one-pick-brady-aiken-inside-story
Two days after Houston drafted Aiken, the parties agreed in principle to a $6.5 million signing bonus, which was $1.5 million below the league’s assigned slot value
Aiken’s MRI evidently looked like the reddest of flags. They reduced their offer to Aiken to around $3.1 million – and it seems possible that they hoped that he wouldn’t accept it.
Astros were right about that one. Aiken immediately needed surgery for the very problem they said he had. He is struggling in Low A and striking out just 5.6/9IP.
It cost Aiken $2.5 million to be a doofus and not sign for the $5 million (not $3.1 million) they offered him after they found out his extreme injury risk when they did the physical. A physical that can’t be done until after the draft.
bleacherreport.com/articles/2699686-brady-aiken-rejected-5m-and-got-hurt-now-past-no-1-pick-fights-for-mlb-future
mlbtraderumors.com/2015/06/indians-to-sign-brady-aiken.html
True, astros were right, but someone said you dont under slot the 1st overall pick. Aiken is probably the only 1st overall pick to be underslotted twice.
Correa.
Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like there’s a small problem with the system when the 1st pick is chosen based off of signability.
100% agree, but I guess teams don’t want a repeat of the Astros a few years ago.
Well, the draft itself is nonsense but teams get a pool of money and need to figure out the best way to spend it efficiently.
Sure, the draft was redesigned to cap costs and teams have reacted accordingly. I think it’s weird to pick a player based on their relative price, but that’s the way it is. The Astros got correa on the cheap, but also overpaid for Whitley and got scrubs afterwards.
It’s a way for the MLB to try to help create competitive fairness in a way as silly as it may seem.
Team with the 1st overall pick typically gets the most money and needs the most help. If they play their cards right they’ll draft some high upside players to forgo college later on in the draft with the money they save. So they’ll get 3-4 players with essentially 1 pick. Padres did this last year with Hudson Potts and used the savings on Lawson and Thompson.
No guarantees of course, but its something to help teams that need it not become the cleveland browns of the mlb world.
MLB.com’s “live draft tracker” still has no draft selections yet. Sigh.
SBNation has a decent tracker although you have to refresh constantly.
They’re currently two picks behind…I guess I’ll just wait an hour or so.
Why aren’t you watching the network?
No TV. I’m a cord-cutter. No reason to pay for stuff I don’t need.
It was on MLB.com live. You could have watched it there.
Was it even watchable on tv? I thought MLB.com was the only place you could watch it
Then don’t complain when the alternative method sucks!
High school pitchers. To much risk in that!
I’m really excited to watch him develop. I liked the pick.
People who don’t take Hunter Greene will very disappointed
They should trade him for Shelby Miller.
With Max Kepler and Jose Berrios
might need to add sano to get the deal done
Go Braves
A McPohlad selection, Proving that Terry ** Curly ** Ryan , is hiding in the attic,and is once again,playing the puppet master