The Pittsburgh Pirates announced the signing of two draft picks on Friday night. They signed outfielder Sammy Siani, who was taken with the 37th overall pick in the draft. They also signed infielder Ernny Ordonez, who was taken in the 33rd round and announced as a third baseman. Siani had a commitment to Duke, while Ordonez was a JUCO player, though he was transferring to Kansas if he played his junior season.
The 18-year-old Siani was taken with the compensation pick the Pirates had for not signing Gunnar Hoglund last year. Siani was ranked 43rd in this draft class by MLB Pipeline. He gets above average grades for both his hitting and his running, while his defense is average and his power is slightly below average. MLB Pipeline thinks he may move to left field in the future, though others have said he’s one of the top defensive prep outfielders in the draft. His selling point is the consistent hard contact made from the left side.
You can read more about him here in the article that announced his selection, which also has videos.
Here are the player pages for each player. Siani will head to the GCL Pirates, while Ordonez is going to Bristol:
Jim Callis has the bonus total for Siani, which is $150,700 above slot. We will update our draft tracker shortly and add some comments below about what his signing means for over-slot money left. The Pirates have now signed 25 of their 42 draft picks.
Supplemental 1st-rder Sammy Siani signs with @Pirates for $2,150,000 (pick 37 value = $1,999,300). Pennsylvania HS OF, VG left-handed hitter with developing power. Brother Mike signed for $2 mil as @Reds 4th-rder last year. @MLBDraft
— Jim Callis (@jimcallisMLB) June 14, 2019
UPDATE: The Pirates have now handed out three over-slot deals and four deals under slot, along with one player who received the exact slot amount. We are still waiting on the bonus for eighth round pick Austin Roberts (see below). We are also waiting to see if JC Flowers (4th round), Will Matthiessen (6th round) and ninth round pick Ethan Paul are going to sign. Flowers and Paul are still playing in the College World Series, so we will need to wait a little while on them.
What we do know so far is that they have only saved $158,800. We also know that if they sign all 12 picks in the top ten rounds, they will be able to spend an extra $497,200 on top of that money without losing a draft pick. That would give them $656,000 for over-slot deals. Each pick after the tenth round comes with a $125,000 slot, so they could split that over-slot money up however they want on high school picks, including 11th round pick Jase Bowen, who will definitely require an over-slot deal.
UPDATE #2: According to a source, eighth round pick Austin Roberts got $166,000 to sign, which is $2500 under his slot amount. I adjusted the numbers in the last update instead of going through the whole thing again for such a small amount.
One added note. Next draft pick signings I know of are coming in on Monday. Doesn’t mean there won’t be any over the weekend, but I don’t know of any.
