No. 1 overall draft pick Royce Lewis will take his physical with the Twins soon, tweets Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. There aren’t expected to be any hangups in negotiations, per Berardino, who notes that the industry expectation is for Lewis to receive a bonus north of Dansby Swanson’s $6.5MM bonus from the 2015 draft. The top pick in the draft came with a slot value of $7.7MM, and MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger wrote this week that Lewis could sign for around $1MM less than that sum. That’d put his bonus in the $6.5MM to $6.7MM range, saving the Twins anywhere from $1MM to $1.2MM from the slot value. FanRag’s Jon Heyman pegs the expected value at “just a tick over” $6.7MM. Rays top pick Brendan McKay, meanwhile, is expected to sign for somewhere between $7MM and $7.2MM, according to Berardino. That’d be the largest bonus ever given to a college player under the current draft structure, surpassing Kris Bryant’s $6.7MM sum.
More notes on the draft…
- The Twins “crushed” Day 2 of the draft, MLB.com’s Jim Callis opines. Adding high school right-hander Blayne Enlow, a potential first-round talent that dropped due to a strong commitment to LSU, kicked off a day in which Minnesota selected five players that ranked inside MLB.com’s top 200 draft prospects. Enlow, Callis writes, has the best curveball in the draft as well as a fastball that has touched 94 mph and has room to grow as his projectable frame grows. Callis also lauds the White Sox, Dodgers, Red Sox and Brewers for the talent they secured in rounds three through 10. ESPN’s Keith Law agrees that the Twins did quite well to land Enlow with the No. 76 pick and also gives quite a bit of praise to the Athletics, who landed a first-round talent (in his estimation) with the 81st pick by taking shortstop Nick Allen. Law opines that the undersized Allen, who is listed at 5’8″, would’ve been a top 10 pick if he were three inches taller.
- FanRag’s Jon Heyman provides some insight into the progress being made with the top five picks in the draft. The Padres, according to Heyman, are expected to sign No. 3 overall pick MacKenzie Gore, a high school left-hander, for the full slot value of $6,668,100. Reds top pick Hunter Greene, meanwhile, is expected to sign for a deal “close” to the $7,193,200 slot value of his No. 2 overall selection, per Heyman. (Also of note for Reds fans: Heyman spoke to a rival exec who heaped praise on the Reds’ draft, opining that they “won the draft by far.”) And the Braves look to be going well over slot to sign Vanderbilt right-hander Kyle Wright, as Heyman reports that they’re discussing a deal worth close to $7MM, while the No. 5 slot carries a value of $5,707,300. Of course, Wright was long rumored to be a potential No. 1 overall pick, so it stands to reason that he’d come with a fairly sizable price tag.
- Baseball America’s John Manuel reported yesterday that Stanford right-hander Tristan Beck, a potential first-round talent that missed the 2017 season due to a stress fracture in his lower back, will not sign and plans to head back to Stanford (Twitter link). That didn’t stop the Yankees from drafting him late (29th round), though New York would obviously need to give him a massive bonus in order to convince him to forgo a return to college, as a healthy Beck would do quite well in next year’s draft. The Yankees may not have the leftover money even to make a legitimate effort to sign Beck, though he makes for a nice contingency plan if the team unexpectedly finds itself with some extra pool money to play with.
I think the Rays finally have a position playing superstar who can truly hit. We have only had one of those since we became an organization. This kid could be a legit superstar. Very exciting for a team that usually never turns to hitters
Should’ve been a pitcher
Probably will be inked into his contract that he will be allowed to pitch
yeah. Did you watch the draft preview show on Monday? They were talking about all the innings he pitched at Louisville. So it was best to take him as a hitter. As for green. With a 102 mile an hour fastball that was a good move bite Cincinnati.
Boston has to find the cash to ink those kids and hopefully #14 Aaron Perry, another HS kid hard thrower returning from an arm injury. Having only 5.6m to play with hopefully won’t be a big issue.
What is Kyle Wright’s MLB eta?
Optimistic is opening day 2019. Realistic is mid-season to September 2019/ opening day 2020
Love what preller has done. People give him grief for trading turner and grandal but in my opinion hes more than made up for it.
Hes brought in allen, espinoza, nix, gore, quantril, lauer, lucchesi, thompson, lawson, morejon, maton
Hes brought in naylor, ona, tatis, asjuae, margot
And hes found talent in unconventional fashion- cordoba, perdomo, hand, buchter
Hed gonna get a good haul for hand. Idk if there’s ever been a DFA claim that will get what hand will get the padres. If he can get an MLB ready ss with long term team control in a hand deal that would be ideal.
I dont think the padres screwed up the wil myers 3 team deal. It was the rays who could have got trea turner but instead wanted souza. Myers is a solid player . Turner just has crazy speed and plays SS so it seems worse for the padres then it really is. Rays were the ones who did bad. Souza may have a 2 war this season but i think anyone would rather have trea turner.
Eh, it depends how you look at the trade because it wasn’t just Turner who the Padres gave up, it was also Joe Ross who would arguably be the Padres #1 starter right now as bad as that sounds to say and Jake Bauers who is the number 64 prospect in all of baseball right now.
Now, if and when Jose Castillo makes it to the big leagues and can pitch like he did for team Venezuela in the WBC then the trade can even out a little bit more for SD. But as it stands Washington won that trade, San Diego did okay, and Tampa did so-so with Souza having his best year of the 3 so far since the trade.
As it stands, that trade was a huge positive for the Nats, a small/medium negative for the Padres and a big negative for the Rays. I honestly don’t know how the Nats even got involved. Like did anyone genuinely believe at the time that Steven Souza and Travis Ott were worth Trea Turner and Joe Ross?
I’ll agree that right now it still looks like Washington came out the best, but how can you say the Rays did the worst in that trade? They traded 5 years of Wil Myers for 6 years of Souza and a top 75 prospect. Souza and Myers have been just about the same player since the trade, so the Rays got an extra year for free and a top prospect. That’s a better return in my book.
With the struggles of Turner and Ross, plus Souza coming into his own, looking at the trade today you could even make the argument that the Rays won it.
Yates
Is the new hand
Yates has been a pleasant surprise, I’m hoping that Preller puts in a waiver claims for Feliz as well. You figure 2 out of the 4 at least of Hand, Buchter, Maurer and Yates will be traded so you need some more veteran leadership yo replenish those losses and if Balsley can get Feliz remotely close to being what he used to be it would be an awesome pick up, not to mention the influence he would have on Torres, Diaz, Valdez, Perdomo and company.
Córdoba might already be the long term answer at SS with the way he has played there as of late. He is getting more comfortable with the position with every start he gets, not to mention that he puts up a professional at bat every single plate appearance. He isn’t over matched by big league pitching and he has a really good approach for a guy who never played above rookie ball 3 months ago.
The reason SD might force feed him SS sooner rather than later has nothing to do with him but more to do with Franchy busting onto the scene creating what will be an interesting puzzle in the weeks/months to come, with Renfroe, Margot, Cordero, Jankowski and Dickerson, all in the equation to some degree for the long term future, Córdoba might need to stick at SS to keep his bat in the lineup honestly.
Córdoba can’t play short. Dickerson is a nice hitter but he’s already 28. Jankowski is a fourth outfielder. I’m a Padres fan but even I recognize these guys are pretty limited.
I definitely agree. I thought they made a great pick with Gore, and the inevitable trades of Hand and/or Maurer is going to just jeep building up the farm even more.
Bad thing about taking Mckay and Wright is that taking them at 4 and 5 slot values basically crushes your spending later on. Braves had very mediocre draft after their first two choices due to the spending restrictions
You’re absolutely right. Very college Senior heavy in the front half, Then heavy high school in the 2nd half of the draft. You can full well expect most of the high schoolers in the 2nd half won’t sign, , then all the seniors on the first half will sign at whatever low ball offer we give them cause they don’t have much other options.
Also, our first 2 picks were the only top 200 prospects. Not a big deal as far as scouting, but it does give me the impression that the rest of the people we drafted might have been overlooked and therefore willing to sign for less.
The problem the Braves had going into this draft is that their system is loaded to begin with. I am pretty sure the knew going in that they would not have room on the minor league rosters to add another 30 or 35 guys, so they spent heavy on the early rounds knowing that they would not be signing the majority of their picks in the later rounds.
I am still deciding what to think of their overall draft, as I really do love the Wright and Waters picks, and I also like the Freddy Tarnok selection as well..but I am not overly enthused about the draft as a whole.
Just bc they crushed the 2nd day of the draft doesn’t mean they will sign all of those
There were two players selected in the top 10 rounds last year that didn’t sign. Generally speaking, you should expect that anyone selected in the top 10 rounds is going to sign.
so basically you’re saying the twins aren’t signing Blaine and low. That’s probably the worst thing I have heard about this year’s draft.
but, I don’t expect Washington to sign Baker. I don’t even remember what round that was. Can somebody tell me if they kno?
They already have an agreement in place with Enlow.
oh. I just saw that article. Thanks.
The Twins drafted shrewdly to make sure they have the funds. They will sign all their top10 picks. Enlow was the only one in doubt and he’s already agreed. Also Callis said they crushed it day 1 and 2, “Minnesota crushed the Draft again in Rounds 3-10 on Tuesday.”
Tristan Beck is going to be a RS sophomore. He still has 3 years of eligibility.
Agh, thanks. I updated.
I like the braves taking the best player available overheat of just someone they can save money on
The braves never really drafted someone just to save money, they have always used the entirety of their pool. Last year they just decided to draft someone they were really high on earlier than most, and used the money saved on Anderson for 2 more first round talents later. There is a huge difference between being cheap and penny pinching, as opposed to spreading around the allotted pool money to get several high end players.
Who did the White Sox draft that were good ??
Just click the link…