The Pittsburgh Pirates officially announced three signings today, making fifth round pick Adrian Sampson, ninth round pick D.J. Crumlich, and 11th round pick Chris Diaz official. We already knew all three players had agreed to deals. Baseball America updates us with the bonus information.
Sampson received $250,000. That’s a small savings versus his $252,100 slot price.
Crumlich received $5,000, which is a big savings compared to his $129,100 slot price.
Diaz received $100,000, which is the maximum that a player can receive outside of the top ten without counting against the bonus pool spending.
After the Sampson and Crumlich signings, the Pirates have $609,400 available to use in over-slot deals. They still have three players in the top ten rounds unsigned: fourth round pick Brandon Thomas, eighth round pick Kevin Ross, and of course first round pick Mark Appel.
Looks like we’ll have around 700K over slot bonus money to play with.
How would you guys look at spending that money ?
Most of you will know already that I feel very strongly about not giving the majority of this cash to Appel and Boras. So my suggestion would be:
100K to Appel (offering him 3 million which is only slightly over slot)
500K to Buehler
100K to entice one or two of the later round picks away from a college commitment (Rand, Russell, Waguespack, Pope, West, Zalewski).
works for me! 🙂
Why would a 9th round pick sign for $5K?
Just to further expand on Tim’s reply….in past years, Crumlich would be taken in the 30th round and sign for $5,000. Now with the teams using the Top 10 picks as “pool flexibility” for their draft cap, the Pirates said to Crumlich “If we draft you in the Top 10, will you sign for $5,000?” The answer was yes and here he is.
Same money for Crumlich, savings for the Pirates.
This can’t be what they had in mind when they went to the new draft system. I really think it is a shame that teams have to draft inferior players in order to simply sign their previous picks…
Think of it as “trading picks”. The Pirates could use the extra money to try and sign 14th round pick Walker Buehler, who is a compensation/2nd round talent. Would you trade your 7th, 9th, and 10th round picks for an extra second rounder?
good point! Personally, I don’t care WHERE players are drafted as long as they’re good players!
Even in past years, ninth round picks were getting low bonuses if they were college seniors. Matt Hague only got $25,000 as a college senior in 2008.
Because he was a college senior with no leverage taken for signability reasons.
Because its better than working at Sears? A la, Crash Davis. It’s called negotiating leverage…and he had none.
And, as a college senior, I bet he’s seen the job market out there. A job is a job is a job.