The Diamondbacks have agreed to terms with their first-round pick from this year’s draft, Druw Jones, per New York Post’s Jon Heyman. Heyman reports that Jones will take home a bonus of $8.1851MM, which is the exact listed slot value for the second overall pick. However, Jim Callis of MLB.com relays that the slot values were changed just a few days before the draft and that Jones will actually get a bonus of $8.1894MM, which is the new slot value.
Jones, 18, was selected out of Wesleyan High School in Norcross, Georgia. He is a center fielder just like his father, long-time Braves outfielder Andruw Jones. Despite his young age, Jones has been long mentioned as one of the best players available in this draft class, both because of his name-brand pedigree and his incredible talents on the field.
Baseball America ranked him the best player in the draft, giving him grades of 55 or higher on the 20-80 scouting scale in each of the five categories for position players (60 hit, 55 power, 70 run, 70 field and 65 arm). Jones also took the top spot in the rankings at FanGraphs, The Athletic, ESPN and MLB Pipeline. Despite that unanimous praise as the top player available, the Orioles decided to use the first pick of the draft on Jackson Holliday, another second-generation player, the son of Matt Holliday. That allowed the Diamondbacks to select Jones with the second pick of the draft.
Jones had committed to join Vanderbilt but it seems he will forgo that commitment to jump into the Diamondbacks system, giving them an enviable bumper crop of exciting young outfielders. Though he is still quite young and it would be unfair to expect him, or any prospect, to shoot up the minor league ladder with speed, the D-Backs and their fans will surely be dreaming of seeing Jones in their future outfield mix next to the recently-promoted Alek Thomas and Corbin Carroll, who recently made the jump to Triple-A and is widely considered to be one of the best prospects in the sport.
Dang- nice pay day for a high school kind. Nice
No doubt. $8m and he has never swung a bat at any pro level. He never has to put out any effort and can retire wealthy young man. I really can’t feel sorry for minor league players when the pay is so extremely unbalanced.
@jerry
Yeah the top rounds get nice size bonuses and a few come from families where their dads made 9 figures. There’s still many kids that sign for 4 and 5 figure deals and plenty of undrafted kids too. Acting like most minor leaguers make millions is silly and not factually accurate though.
I believe there are few minor league players who make $1M or not even ½M. It is this kind of pay for top draft choices that lends to the idea that all pro players make good money, but it is only for the privileged few. To me, it is unfortunate to see guys work their butts off in the minors trying to get a break while high draft picks get their break before they walk out on the field, It’s just the way the system works. They need to fix the system. I would like to see modern analytics explain this (no sarcasm intended).
They don’t have to play minor league baseball. They can work in another profession. It’s not as bad today with all the non salary perks. If you can’t get a six figure income it may be worth it to try to make it. Or if you just enjoy playing baseball at the highest possible level.
Well said Jerry.
Manfred keeps speaking out against minor league pay raises though and the union favors the wealthiest players so we might not see much progress. Especially considering how MLB has taken over MiLB.
Dream GM – I agree, they don’t have to play minor league baseball, but for these guys, it is there best skill, so they take a shot at it, hoping that some day, they make the huge money, But making it is often a struggle. Many have skills for a different career, but baseball has an enormous payoff. If they can make that big money, they won’t have to work year after year for most of their life, unlike the average person. It is a worthwhile gamble.
To me, it is unfortunate to see guys work their butts off in the minors trying to get a break while high draft picks get their break before they walk out on the field, It’s just the way the system works. They need to fix the system.
================================
What’s broken that needs fixing? Folks with more talent get paid more money. That’s really the same everywhere. Try being a musician, or actor, or a lot of other things. Some folks make it big, but most struggle.
Well lots of people, especially on this web site, keep crying about how underpaid minor leaguers are. I guess you are not one of them and that’s okay. Still, Druw Jones hasn’t proved crap and is getting paid real close to Joey Gallo money for graduating high school. That’s what probably should be changed. “Here’s $8M kid, to down to the corner drug store and get your prescription filled for doxycycline. We don’t have a clue if you can play in the pros, but like everyone else in baseball, you’ve got talent.”
He can’t retire or he will owe all that money back. He committed to play pro ball until his services are no longer rendered.
Which in turn should make u feel sorry for other minor leaguers. Sign for a 100k or less to make 20k a year for a span of 6 years or more.
Big Whiff – Sorry for my lack of detail. So when his time comes that he can retire, he won’t have to worry about money. Some people on this web site are painfully shortsighted.
Lots of people in this world make less than $20K per year. Some of these guys actually do have to pay their dues to get to the mega millions. Put your nose to the grindstone, boys. Get to work and earn your money. Once they make it, maybe then, they can get a $10M contract and sit on their fat butts, like Joey Gallo.
Are you arguing that everyone in the world should make the same salary? What’s the alternative?
And, FWIW, my guess is that Jones probably did a lot of hard work. I don’t think AZ said ‘hey, there’s Andruw’s kid, let’s give him $8M.”. I’m sure there is some good genetics at work here, but most athletes work hard.
Joe – I’m just trying to figure why Jones is getting major league money for being good in high school, when there are so many top prospects looking for part time jobs. People are so concerned whether or not minor leaguers can make a living, so I thought I’d throw something out there for reaction.
It’s a lottery ticket if as a young boy you’re genetic skills will show up in high school. Only the top minor league players get this type of payday. Most don’t have the floor and upside of guys like Druw and get tiny bonuses considering how many years they are committing to baseball and losing years off their post baseball careers. MLB needs to be more honest with these players as only a tiny fraction can make an actual living. But MLB doesn’t want to deter young men from giving them their prime years in case a few become stars, just the rest struggle to pay the rent.
Except he isn’t a high school kid he likely graduated last month you idiot
I’m afraid the idiot may actually be the one who has difficulty with taking things way too literally instead of having the common sense to know what he meant. I’m certain the rest of us know exactly what he meant by “high school kid.”
Maybe you should have said “a kid coming out of high school”
Sheesh. I apologize- I’ll try to proofread more and have fun on a baseball site, less.
Okay “Michaelchavisbooty”
The Mute button certainly has its uses.
Alex Antholopolous on line 1…can they get the Diamondbacks to trade them another stud prospect? Braves are exceedingly thin on OF depth now that Harris has graduated, Waters/Pache was traded and couldn’t hit enough
The Braves have the 30th ranked farm in baseball. They’ll need a lot more than one player to change that. They’ll also need the Dbacks to rehire Dave Stewart. Neither are likely to ever occur.
They should lose more so they can work on that farm ranking
They will, soon enough. Wild Card this year sounds about right, followed by a decade of mediocrity. You can only dodge injuries and mortgage your future for so long!
Mortgage the future? Can you name one future piece they dealt for any of the rentals-plus (Duvall, Pederson, Soler, Rosario) that helped bring the hardware? Langeliers has been the costliest prospect dealt, but brought 8 years of Olson, while Pache/Cusick/Estes were expendable. They’re carefully spending, avoiding major future payroll commitments even when having to say goodbye to a franchise cornerstone (FF) when appearing like a risky contract, yet they are mortgaging the future? This is the first year free of the sanctions of Coppy-gate and now AA can draft/develop without any restrictions. Watch out.
You seem triggered. It’s cute.
Entertained, absolutely. No games for a few days, so thanks. Just wanted a little more insight into your broken Magic 8 ball analysis.
Man, if that outfield lives up to its potential, that’s a scary site in the desert…
In the short term, even more likely that the Dbacks trade from their current CF depth, and David Peralta will definitely be moved before the deadline.
Jake McCarthy or Dominic Fletcher are most likely to be moved for young pitching help.
Trade one, but not both. Still need some OF depth behind Thomas/Varsho/Carroll in case one goes down to injury.
Hoping Kristian Robinson will make it back and be part of the OF mix in 2023. Prefer him over Luplow as the right handed option with all these left handers.
I prefer Stone Garrett over Luplow. I know. I’m sounding like a broken record.
suffer Garrett got off to a fast start this year, but is hitting .229 this month. His batting average in AAA PCL is down to .281. Any time I see a batting avg. in the PCL that is below .300, I think it will be .100 points lower in the bigs. So I don’t see Garrett as an improvement over Luplow, despite Luplow’s low bar. And I certainly wouldn’t promote a player who is scuffling that much at the plate right now.
I do hope Stone gets a shot. I’ve been rooting for the dude since the knife incident on the farms derailed his career.
Good to see these top picks getting deals done quickly. Set the positive example. I know there are extenuating circumstances occasionally such as should you go to college or jump right in, etc. And that can affect this negotiating process negatively.
But ultimately, this should be cut and dry: here’s the market for a rookie in your draft slot, here’s the CBA requirement(s) (or lack thereof), here’s our offer. Should be able to hammer it out within a couple days.
I wonder when Jack Holliday is going to sign. I bet his dad Matt is making things real difficult trying to milk the orioles for some kind of deal making it seem like he will go to okstate or something.
He would not have been drafted there if they did not already have some kind of gentleman’s agreement in place. Same with Drew Jones.
I’m not sure thats true.
@michale now this is just my gut, but what i think matt is telling his son take a few days think about what you want to do, and i’m sure he laid out everything that you have to do to get to the pros. also every friday on 101 espn matt spends 15 mins on the radio talking to matt and he doesn’t strike me as someone trying to get every little drop, also matt spent a lot of time in the children’s hospitals in stl and drove to one of them after a game to give a kid a ball he hit that was a milestone hit(i don’t remember the milestone but iirc it was 2k hits but i could be wrong). again this is a conjecture and not based on any fact i don’t personally know any of the holiday’s this is just one cards fan theory based on watching play in stl for 7 years
Mk well still could be true doesn’t mean he is a bad person
@michale while that may be true, you can be “greedy” but still be a good person is the one off and not the norm. imo the holiday’s to me don’t really fall into that category. then again i could be completely wrong heck most serial killers generally are “great people” until you found out about then next your on the news going “i lived next to him for 20 years and he was always so nice and friendly and helped around the house i can’t believe he can do that”. or heck bundy worked at a suicide help-line and was really good at keeping people from offing themselves, but at the same time he is one of the us’es most infamous sk’ers. long and short of it unless you really know a person anything they do is just conjecture.
Druw Jones’ contract sets a record for the highest amount ever given to a HS player. Previous record was Bobby Witt at $7.7M.
I can’t wait until he’s playing for Visalia. I’ll definitely go to the games when they come to San Bernardino.
same here!
Its finally nice to see the D”Backs acting like a franchise that is getting the message, forget about going the way of long-term contracts for older players and invest into the young kids. Will be really interesting to see what the roster is going to look like say three years from now.
Where will Varsho play are they going to make him an everyday catcher. It don’t sound like he is a candidate for the OF.
If Holliday had received all those top marks, the Orioles would have taken Jones. They always have to go, at least, a little against the grain. It’s their “thing”.