The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed all of their picks in the top ten round, 12 players in all and we now know how their draft bonus pool shapes up. The new numbers are:
Connor Joe $1,250,000
Nelson Jorge $125,000
Kevin Krause $143,600
Krause signed for slot, while Joe signed for $207,600 under slot. Jorge signed for $39,700 under slot. Our draft signing tracker has been updated with all the information.
The Pirates now have approximately $484,485 available for over-slot deals without losing a draft pick. Of that total, $131,300 is from the draft bonus pool and the rest is the 5.0% they are allowed to spend over the bonus pool before the lose a draft pick. They will have to pay 75% tax on anything they spend over the $131,300.
This is also assuming that none of the picks signed after the tenth round required an over-slot deal. Eric Thomas Jr, taken in the 21st round, had a commitment to Sam Houston State, so he may have required an over-slot deal to sign.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Gerrit Cole is a prime example of improving his status by going to college. I heard he turned down millions from the Yankees out of high school. Looking forward to him getting off the DL and back in the rotation. We need him. Is there a statistic out there of how many arms that are drafted out of high school actually make it to the big leagues? I’m guessing the percentages are very low.
Shocking that Connor Joe could get that much but good for him.
Some people had Luplow rated higher than Joe, so it is a bit shocking it took that much to sign him. I think they only advantage Joe has over Luplow is negated by the Pirates decision to move him from behind the plate to the outfield. Luplow is a year younger than Joe and they both had amazingly similar junior seasons.
I would just ignore the penalties and sign the top guys. Getting rid of the #1 draft picks or (#1 and #2 ) makes it that much easier to sign FA’s. Then the penalty for signing a FA is a #2 or #3 pick.
Next year the Pirates can sign several of the top international FAs similar to the Yankees and Rays this year. They’d pay for those ‘crimes’ in 2016.
It makes no sense to waste high draft picks to get guys signed. There are extra players you can’t sign every year so why would you give away a top 15-25 pick to get what is maybe a round 3-5 talent??? A couple of extra signs from one draft does not make a system. Losing a first rounder can really hurt when you have some unexpected misses in a draft or two. Stay with the steady plan, accrue talent, and make your highest picks count.
In theory that sounds great. In reality thats the way to ruin your farm system. Think of where they would be if they had paid Appel what he wanted? They would have lost picks and been trying to figure out why Appel can’t get high A hitters out.
I think the better analogy is to consider where they would be had they paid ~$1M for Walker Buehler back in 2012. Probably would have cost the Pirates a 1st round pick.
I don’t think that would have ruined the farm system. Do you?
That is one instance. Gms don’t make a living taking this high risk low reward approach.
Thank god that played out the way it did, can you imagine?
Don’t think Gage signs for that. Good bet to get Welmon and Karas and stay under 5%.
like Joe, but they overpaid
So that means they can offer Gage $577,420? Is that how I read that?
I’d be surprised if he signs for 3rd round money, more likely that they can get Karas (and probably Warren also) to sign and not spend up to the max
Probably depends on how much he likes the idea of playing college ball and how much he wants to roll the dice. He was ranked #188 by Baseball America and lower than that by others – which means he was ranked 6th round or lower. Getting high 3rd round money is a good amount for his current ranking. Like many HS pitchers, he has a lot of upside – which could mean he will go a lot higher in three years. But many HS pitchers see their stock fall while they are in college. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Theoretically yes – assuming that Thomas wasn’t given more than $100,000. However I think it’s actually a bit more. John is using 4.9% as the cap before a team loses next year’s draft pick. However I believe the rule says you’re OK if you spend up to 5%. The difference would raise the possible offer to Gage to a number of about $584,485.
I checked it out and you are correct and I updated it so thanks for that. I put approximately in the sentence because I thought it was 5% and over was the penalty. Not being sure how they rounded it off, we just went with the 4.9% figuring $7,000 isn’t going to make or break a deal with any pick, especially not with the money Gage is looking for
I expected secret information because of the bonus info claim!
Great job by the Pirates!