The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed 2023 first overall pick Paul Skenes to a $9.2 million bonus. The amount is a league record, and $1.2 million more than the previous Pirates record, given to Gerrit Cole in 2011.
With Skenes under contract, the Pirates have most of their bonus pool locked down. The remaining picks to sign are Comp B pick Zander Mueth, sixth rounder Hunter Furtado, and ninth rounder Danny Carrion. Mueth is expected to command the biggest bonus, likely going over-slot.
The slot price for Mueth is $1.128 million. The Pirates have $1.3 million to spend in their bonus pool, not counting a little over $800,000 that they can spend without losing a future draft pick. They could give Mueth about $3.2 million, which seems an unlikely high amount. By comparison, Anthony Solometo received $2.8 million and Bubba Chandler received $3 million. I could see Mueth ending up closer to the Jared Jones range of $2.2 million.
The Pirates will almost certainly have money remaining after signing Mueth, especially with 9th rounder Carrion likely being a slot-saving pick. That would allow them money to go after 15th round prep catcher John Lopez, 17th round prep third baseman Daniel Cuvet, or some of the college pitchers taken after the 10th round, such as Magdiel Cotto (11th) or Khristian Curtis (12th).
The addition of Skenes gives the Pirates their number one prospect in the system. He was recently rated as the best pitching prospect in the game by Baseball America, and their number six prospect overall. I wrote about Skenes as one of five pitchers who could help the Pirates at the MLB level in the next year. For his upside, check out my earlier column on his Major League attitude.
