7:56pm: Green’s bonus checks in at $6.5MM, reports Carlos Collazo of Baseball America (on Twitter). That’s a sliver above the slot value.
7:25pm: The Nationals agreed to a deal with fifth overall pick Elijah Green, according to a team announcement. Bonus terms have not yet been disclosed; the fifth overall pick comes with a slot value of $6.4977MM.
Green, an outfielder out of IMG Academy in Florida, has been one of the highest-touted prospects in the 2022 class for years. Regarded as a possible candidate for the first pick early in draft rumors, Green was generally viewed as a top ten talent throughout the process. Each of Baseball America, ESPN, The Athletic and MLB Pipeline placed Green between third and seventh on their pre-draft class rankings. Only FanGraphs, which slotted him 11th, had him outside the top ten among the five major outlets.
Listed at 6’3″, 214 pounds, Green already has big league physicality at 18 years of age. Evaluators rave about his physical toolset, with most suggesting he’ll wind up with plus-plus (a 70 on the 20-80 scale) raw power and speed at his peak. Reports suggest he has a strong chance to stick in center field over the long-term, and his combination of power and athleticism give him superstar-caliber upside. Yet each outlet raised a question about Green’s propensity to swing and miss, both due to chasing secondary stuff outside the strike zone and getting beaten by fastballs in the zone.
Green had been committed to Miami (FL), but he’ll forego college and head to pro ball. There’s obviously risk inherent with the swing-and-miss in his profile, but he has arguably the class’ loftiest ceiling. He’ll add a possible marquee talent to a Washington farm system that had just one player (right-hander Cade Cavalli) on Baseball America’s most recent Top 100 prospects update.
a slot value of $6.4977MM. Happy for him, sad for the rest of us
Dude, why do you constantly bemoan player salaries?
Have you ever dedicated as much of your life to something they have?
If you have, that’s great! But, unfortunately you chose an industry that is far less lucrative and contains far more people that could replace you than professional baseball.
Why waste your limited time complaining that someone younger and far better than you at something is paid more.
I agree with you 100%, but I also say the same thing to those that bash owners.
Yeah 100%, as long as you didn’t complain about players during the lockout.
I don’t begrudge owners or players, get yours when you can. I just hate people calling players greedy and complaining about what they are paid. They used their rights as employees to fight for increased benefits that are more in line with the revenue they generate, and people would berate them.
So many people seemed to take the “I want to watch baseball now, so accept whatever the owners give you because you play a kid’s game” approach.
I’ve never seen anyone giving owners guff for making a “kid’s game” a multinational business with monopoly protection run by rich elites. But, that’s probably how it was meant to framed in all media.
Miserable people like to complain. I know for a fact there are millionaires and even billionaires that look at this site and they don’t seem to be sad. I know people who aren’t millionaires and they seem happy as well.
If they hadn’t signed him for that amount, it’s not as if part of that money would’ve been disbursed to the rest of us.
Im just happy something good finally happened for us. I liked the way Green sounded confident in his interviews, and I’m glad he’s excited to join. Hopefully this is the start of a new era.
Plenty good happening. Won world series. Didn’t sign Rendon. Made some solid trades. Cruz turned things around just in time to join Bell as nice trade chips.
Not sure how much we’d get for Cruz, but hopefully something for Bell. He’s been great, but he’s only a rental.
Cruz and the Cubs 3 were rentals and brought back a awesome haul. Getting rid of Cruz salary and some lotto tickets would be a win. Bell should get a big upside prospect.
What’s insane to me is IMG Academy has a tuition that’s over $50k/year. A super elite school to groom future sports stars. But, their baseball program does not cultivate talent. It attracts talent and lets it stagnate. What has anyone done from there? And if they’ve done something it assuredly has been in spite of their tutelage.
Can we see what he’ll look like in other teams’ uniforms? We’ll see it in 2024-25 but I’d like to get a preview.