We caught up on draft signings earlier today, but a few more trickled out this evening …
- The Tigers have a deal with third-rounder Trei Cruz, per MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter). A shortstop out of Rice University, Cruz will secure a $900K bonus that lands just over the slot value of $857,400. None of the major draft pundits ranked Cruz among the hundred best draft-eligible prospects, but the Detroit organization was obviously intrigued. If you’re a believer in bloodlines, you can’t do much better than this. Cruz will aim to follow his father, grandfather, and great uncles in appearing in the majors.
- Mets fourth-rounder Matthew Dyer is on board with a $350K bonus, per MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo (Twitter link). That’ll save the New York org nearly $230K to apply to other draftees. Dyer, an Arizona product, ranked 333rd on Baseball America’s final draft board. Mayo credits him with a strong throwing arm and good athleticism for a backstop.
- The Blue Jays have added Zach Britton — not to be confused with Yankees reliever Zack (formerly Zach) Britton. This new Zach Britton landed $97,500 from the Toronto organization, freeing the club to allocate the rest of the $410,100 slot value elsewhere. Britton spent time in the outfield and behind the dish at Louisville. BA graded him just inside the top 200 prospects available for selection this year. Britton was slashing .322/.446/.542 when the season was cut short.
- Fifth rounder Jeff Hakanson is in agreement with the Rays on a bonus, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). Dollar values aren’t yet known publicly, but it seems likely to be an under-slot deal. Hakanson, a righty out of Central Florida, wasn’t ranked on any of the major boards. His slot comes with a $340K bonus pool allocation.
- The Cardinals announced an agreement with their own fifth-round selection, Long Beach State outfielder LJ Jones IV. MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo tweets that Jones has picked up a $100K bonus, meaning the Cards have another $250,300 to work with in signing other players. Jones didn’t merit mention in any rankings either, though the redshirt sophomore never really got a chance to showcase himself in college owing to injuries and the coronavirus situation.
97K for a 410K slot value? What happened there?
Right? I don’t really understand why anyone would agree to an underslot bonus. If you don’t want to pay me slot, don’t draft me.
It’s crazy how some young guys just wanna play baseball and don’t care about the $. Wish MLB players saw it the same
Took the words out of my mouth
They are young I at least hope they put a go back to school clause in their contract.
So I assume you go to work every day but don’t want to get paid?
Seriously, why can’t people just be grateful for the opportunity to make the rich richer by working for free?
i cant believe people still dont get this…its a business and they are the employees.
If they were outside of top 200 they probably talked to them prior
$97,500 > $20,000. Not complicated. Britton would’ve likely gone Undrafted, so he’s actually getting $77,500 more than the maximum an Undrafted guy can receive.
Except he was drafted. Bad point.
Except they still could’ve talked to him about the situation BEFORE drafting him. Still a good point.
Not very hard to figure this stuff out fellas, Socrates is correct. He wouldn’t have been picked so they punted on that round to pick him and give far less than slot so they can add that extra $$$ to pay above-slot elsewhere.
Correct. He was drafted. And he agreed to the value. You say they spoke before the draft? I say, no friggen kidding they spoke before the draft. You contributed nothing to this. Thank you.
Fairly easy to understand actually. You call him & he knows there’s a strong possibility of not getting drafted. He knows this by the number of calls he was receiving. They say a number which is nearly 5x more than he can get undrafted. If he thought he could get drafted by another team, he might have gambled. Tigers called their 5th round pick. A HS kid and they offered him x , he said yes and he got drafted. These deals are in place before they select.
Does no one here understand this? Teams sign guys under slot value so they can pay more for guys who are harder to sign. The player agrees to it, and usually doesn’t have a lot of leverage anyway (a college senior, for instance, or in this case a player who couldn’t sign for more than $20,000 elsewhere).
If a team picks a player like that it’s a virtual certainty they’ve communicated with him already, and know what he’d be willing to sign for.
Refusing to sign for anything less than slot value without having any leverage is how you get picked in the 14th round and sign for $5,000. I agree that bonuses should be higher for most players, but you clearly don’t understand the situation.
Why should we care what you think. None of the players you represent have ever been successful. Why should we care what you think. The players you represent can’t get contracts in Yugoslavia. So, why do you bother posting.
Because Britton isn’t about the money, clearly. Can’t say the same of other players. The players have options to go elsewhere or start their own league elsewhere if they aren’t under contract.
Why are you posting?
He signed for under slot value. Is this something new to you guys? You’ve never heard of this happening before? It happens every year, the Mets just signed their 3rd rounder for 20k (slot value 650k). The jays likely had to draft a guy or two that they think they could sign to below slot value deals, in order to sign Austen Martin to well above slot value. I think their thirst rounder Trent Palmer will also likely sign well below slot. With second round pick Van Eyk signing for around slot value. I think that’s their plan anyways, Austen Martin was projected #2 so he definitely won’t sign for #5 slot value ,that means they need to allocate that money from somewhere else.
Thirst rounder lol
*third
For the Blue Jays to get Zach Britton on a 97,000 dollar deal is absurb. He was one of the best left handed relievers of the 2010’s, and he deserved way more than 97 k. Blue Jays got a steal…
lol
Absurb is not a known word. You must be from Azerbaijan, or some Stalin pilot state.
Take it easy buddy he’s joking
Wonder why nothing about signing by the White Sox are not being posted
Cue the angry Fox News crowd…work for billionaires for free or you’re a dirty liberal commie heathen! Idiots.
what justification for making this political was there?
Who is working for free exactly?
All owners and most MLB players are in the top 1% of income so it is not like they are poor and have to work for free.
Unfortunately Orioles fans like this ^^^ is what I have to deal with on the CamdenChat site everyday. They turn everything into politics and conservative bashing. Gets old, I just wanna tsk baseball.
I know that feeling. Pinstripe Alley is exactly the same way. I know the owner ( Vox Media) is very liberal), but if people want to hear liberal or for that matter conservative politics there are plenty of other options. They need to stick to baseball.
I went to Camden Chat and sure enough it is owned by Vox Media. One of their articles from yesterday was about Dale Scott a gay umpire who retired years ago with a shot at the Yankees for being the last team to have “Pride Day.” I stopped reading after one sentence ( and they had ONLY 8 responses none of which I read).
NY -Why do the ‘lowly’ orioles consume so much real estate in your below average IQ brain? Seriously, why?? You need every one of those 80 IQ points.
This was a response to a statement
The fact that you know Camden Chat, go to it, probably troll, comment on almost every orioles topic here means they are taking up precious real estate in your head. Newsflash: they are winning against you.
Cruz shouldn’t have required an over slot deal…come on Avila.
I did a double-take with Trei Cruz, For a moment I read “Ted Cruz” and wondered why the Texas Senator would be getting a big bonus.
With Cruz signing above slot I have no idea where the tigers are going to get the money to sign Colt Keith…….. which would be a huge disappointment