The 2024 draft is still underway, as Rounds 11-20 will take place tomorrow. Almost everyone who has come off the board within the first 10 rounds will sign over the next few weeks, with one notable deal already hammered out.
- The Mariners have an agreement with second-round pick Ryan Sloan on a $3MM bonus, pending a physical, reports Daniel Kramer of MLB.com (X link). Seattle drafted the high school pitcher with the 55th overall selection last night. They went well above the pick’s $1.64MM slot value to sign him away from a Wake Forest commitment. (Seattle could agree to an underslot deal with first-rounder Jurrangelo Cijntje to save some of the bonus pool space they’re committing to Sloan.) A 6’5″ right-hander from Illinois, Sloan was ranked as a back of the first round talent by each of Baseball America, FanGraphs and The Athletic’s Keith Law. All three outlets credited him with mid-upper 90s velocity, a potential plus slider and the athleticism to have a shot of sticking as a starting pitcher. The $3MM bonus falls between the slot values for the 29th and 30th selections, aligning with those publications’ rankings.
Wake Forest had some high draftees yesterday they must be doing something right.
3 1st round as remember and another pitcher today. They have all of a sudden become vandy 😉
Hope they turn out better then ATL’s 2 former 1st rounders Demon Deacons: Cusick & Shuster. Wastes of picks.
@RayKibg: Weird that they were 15-15 in the conference with the talent they had drafted.
15-15 doesn’t tell us much. You could be 15-15 losing games 1-0 or losing 9-7. How many hitters have been drafted.
University of San Diego had a bunch of kids drafted 1st 2 days of draft. Know they made playoffs n have strong program. They’re doing better than alota big baseball D1 schools for developing talent.
Super relevant…
Didn’t really like the pick of Cijntje at 15 but after picking and now signing Sloan it looks a lot better.
You really gotta wait until the draft is over and the signing period has ended before judging the draft. At least that’s what I keep telling myself after the Cardinals day 2 lol.
In Flores we trust. I don’t follow enough college baseball or read enough scouting reports on amateur players to really have an opinion, but on the surface I’m ok with the Cards picks so far. Solid focus on the most valuable positions.
I say that all the time, even on the first draft discussion. Until you see the allocation of the approved spend, nothing will make sense. I wouldn’t have taken Kurtz, but maybe the As have someone in mind for the 5th round.
Very true. I figured Sloan was headed to college when he slipped and a day later he’s already signed. Very smart draft by Seattle.
Blackpink, how did you like the JJ Wetherholt pick? As a Mountaineer alum, I watched him play a lot the last couple of years and curious how Cardinals fans are embracing him.
Wetherholt I like a lot. I think there were a big 7 in this draft and he was the only one left from that group so glad we took him. It appears Gorman will be moved to either 1b or 3b when Wetherholt is ready.
A little bit surprised at how we are drafting arms despite having a full rotation for years to come but the mariners are good at drafting nowadays
Maybe they could get high up in the prospect rankings and net big league talent or replace Logan Gilbert if no long term deal is reached
There’s a lot of room between drafting a lot of arms in a draft, even those rated high in a weaker than normal draft…. and having someone to adequately replace Gilbert in the rotation.
The Mariners have a good top 5 and Hancock but not a lot past that. Sloan is probably 4 years away he can potentially replace Castillo or Kirby. I do believe you can have too much pitching but I don’t think the Mariners are quite there yet.
Their top 10 prospects are hitters. And, arms don’t last forever.
Still have to field minor league rotations and guys can eventually be traded.
You can never have enough pitching
Plus having guys makes trades easier if you’re gonna deal a vet for prospects or if you’re gonna deal prospects for improvements.
Pitching is always in high demand at both mlb level and minors level, especially cheap controllable pitching
The MLB while boring in the sense of trades that nfl, nhl and nba have they have something they don’t The bonus system. That system allows teams to get multiple top 60-100 prospects in a draft or pick a high upside guy late and sign him to a big deal
Good point but I still want to see trades.
Sure, but that isn’t available to everyone as it was before. Only those teams with losing records, revenue sharing etc have multiple picks and the bonus pool to pick a high upside guy that fell.
The first two days, the Tigers drafted 3 SS and 8 Ps.
Correction: 5 RHP, 2 LHP, 3 SS, 1 RF/CF.
Now trade him for a capable bat for the playoff stretch (serious-not serious)
That explains why no one took Sloan until 55.