With one hour remaining, here is what to watch for:
-Gerrit Cole will sign. It’s just a question of when and for how much.
-The fact that we have an hour to go, and we haven’t heard anything about the Pirates being out on Josh Bell is encouraging. Not a guarantee that he gets signed, but I think the Pirates would have moved on by this point if there was little to no chance of signing him.
-We’ve been hearing rumblings about how some late first round deals are done, but MLB won’t let the teams announce them until after 11:00. The whole process is highly choreographed, and it’s ridiculous.
-Outside of Cole and Bell, the only others we’re keeping an eye on are 15th round pick Kody Watts and 17th round pick Aaron Brown. As I mentioned earlier, Watts is in Pittsburgh, and took a physical. Nothing is done yet, but it’s a good sign that they’ve gone this far. No updates on Brown yet.
-I still think the Pirates can get 11th round pick Joel Bennett, 14th round pick Jordan Dunatov, and 16th round pick Eric Skoglund. However, signing those guys will probably mean bad news on the Josh Bell front.