45.5 F
Pittsburgh

Pirates Sign Austin Meadows

Published:

Austin Meadows is close to signing. - Image Credit: Getty Images
Austin Meadows is close to signing. – Image Credit: Getty Images

UPDATE 2:24 PM, FRIDAY: The Pirates announced they have officially signed Austin Meadows, who will play for the Gulf Coast League Pirates in Bradenton.

Austin Meadows had the following tweet Thursday:

Pretty straight forward: he’s in Pittsburgh. I think a lot of people hope that means he’s about to sign. That’s not necessarily the case. Seventh round pick Buddy Borden went to Pittsburgh after the draft, but it was more for negotiation purposes, and Borden still hasn’t signed. Of course, there’s also this tweet by Jon Heyman:

So it looks like the two sides are close to a deal. I never expected the signing of Meadows to be an issue, even if it didn’t happen instantly like Reese McGuire’s signing. I did talk with McGuire this afternoon, who is friends with Meadows. McGuire will be on the Pirates Prospects Podcast on Monday, but to release part of the show early, here is what he had to say on whether he’s talked with Meadows recently.

“I’ve been in touch with him a little bit,” McGuire said. “He said he was still working out negotiations and whatnot. But I think he should be getting down here pretty soon. I’m not exactly sure when. He hasn’t really given me a full answer either.”

So even McGuire expects Meadows to sign, and to be down here in Bradenton soon. At any rate, there hasn’t been much to report on Meadows to this point, but now it looks like we’re close to getting the most important news on Meadows in this whole process.

UPDATE 9:11 PM: Travis Sawchik says Meadows is signed and that the deal is expected to be close to slot.

UPDATE 9:35 PM: Jim Callis says Meadows got the full slot amount.

Looking at the Draft Pick Signing Tracker, that puts the Pirates at $8,230,600 spent in the top ten rounds. They still have $232,800 to spend on over-slot deals, or $668,145 if they want to go up to 4.9% over their bonus pool. If they did that they would be taxed 75% on the overage, although they wouldn’t lose any future draft picks. The only top ten picks left to sign are sixth round pick Adam Frazier and seventh round pick Buddy Borden. Frazier and Mississippi State just ended their run in the College World Series, while Borden has been looking for an over-slot deal.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

Related Articles

Article Drop

Latest Articles