The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed their last remaining draft pick among the top ten rounds. Florida State third baseman Dylan Busby signed on Wednesday afternoon, exactly one week after his team was eliminated from the College World Series.
When we get his signing bonus, we will then know how much the Pirates will have to spend on any remaining picks after the top ten rounds. Those picks come with a $125,000 slot amount and anything over will have to come from the draft bonus pool. The Pirates will likely exceed their pool once his bonus is announced, but they have been willing in the past to go over by 5% and pay the 75% tax on that overage. Anything over 5% comes with stiffer penalties, including loss of draft picks.
Here is the player page for Busby and here is the article from when he was drafted. He is the 35th player to sign and at least one more draft pick has said he is signing still. Busby will be headed to Morgantown
Our draft pick signing tracker will be updated once his bonus is announced.
UPDATE: The incomparable Jim Callis has his bonus and it is under slot at $575,000, saving the Pirates $51,600 on the pick. More on this shortly.
So the draft pick tracker has now been updated and the numbers are in. The Pirates have $449,395 left to spend before they exceed 5%, which won’t happen. They have seven remaining unsigned players, including Brock Deatherage and Ryan Hoerter, who said they weren’t signing. Among the other five players, David Lee and Mike Gretler were just in the College World Series, so if either is signing, we won’t hear about it right away. Then 12th round pick Hunter Wolfe, 17th rounder Mason Martin and 40th round pick Tyler Osik, are all still out there. As I said above, one of these players has confirmed he is signing.
The remaining $449,395 can be split up among multiple players and they get a $125,000 slot amount, which doesn’t count against that total. In other words, if two of the players were willing to sign for $349,000, the Pirates could sign both. Three players could sign for $274,500 each, etc.
