The Pirates announced this morning they’ve come to an agreement with first overall draft pick Henry Davis. Davis will receive a $6.5MM signing bonus, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).
The #1 overall pick came with an accompanying slot value of $8.4153MM, so Davis’ bonus lands a little less than $2MM under slot. Pittsburgh was surely aware of his willingness to sign for less than slot value before selecting him, with his bonus demands playing a role in their eventual choice.
The Pirates’ collection of picks came with a cumulative bonus pool of $14.394MM, the largest amount in this year’s class. Teams are permitted to exceed their bonus pool by up to five percent without forfeiting future draft choices, giving Pittsburgh around $15.11MM to allot to their draftees among the top ten rounds. With Davis signed, the Pirates still have around $8.61MM to spend on their crop of Day Two selections.
Davis, a 21-year-old catcher out of Louisville, catapulted himself into the mix for the No. 1 overall selection with a massive junior season. The Bedford, N.Y. native raked at a .370/.482/.663 clip and clubbed 15 home runs to go along with nine doubles — all while walking (31 times) more than he struck out (24).
Davis wasn’t the consensus or even the expected top pick in the draft, although the majority of pre-draft rankings listed him as a Top 5 overall talent. He ranked No. 2 at FanGraphs and at The Athletic; No. 4 at Baseball America and ESPN; and No. 5 at MLB.com, for instance. The Pirates’ decision to opt for Davis saved them a little bit of money with respect to the top overall draft slot, but any savings figure to be reallocated to an impressive crop of top-ranked talent they managed to secure at draft slots further down the board.
As Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper highlights, the Pirates’ first four selections — the fourth of which came at No. 72 overall — were all regarded as first-round talents in BA’s rankings. Left-hander Anthony Solometo, outfielder Lonnie White Jr. and right-hander/shortstop Bubba Chandler all ranked within BA’s top 32 players. Not every outlet was quite as bullish on that trio, but all were considered Top 75 talents; Chandler, in particular, was highly regarded. Specific rankings aside, it’s an impressive crop of talent to carry away from a single draft.
The Bucs will need to sign all four, of course, in order for that impressive group to pay dividends, but it appears they have a decent chance at doing so. Chandler, who was Clemson recruit as a quarterback, already told ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren this week that he intends to sign with the Pirates (Twitter link). Pittsburgh likely also saved some money with their picks in the fifth, sixth and ninth rounds by drafting college seniors, who frequently sign well below slot.
The selection of Davis immediately adds one of the game’s most highly regarded catching prospects to a Pirates system that second-year GM Ben Cherington and his front office are rapidly working to rebuild. Davis is lauded for his blend of hit tool, excellent power and plus or plus-plus arm strength. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen calls him a “rare offensive talent for a backstop.” Both Longenhagen and The Athletic’s Keith Law acknowledge some elements of his defensive game that need polish, but Law opines Davis will “outwork everyone to become an above-average defender.” ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel calls him the draft’s “best college hitter by a good margin,” and virtually every report on Davis notes that he has more than enough bat to make it work at another position even if he doesn’t stick behind the dish.
Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was first to report the sides had reached an agreement.
Let’s hope the contract comes with a nickname.
It’s not “Crash”?
No that’s his stock after he faces rookie pitching next month
It needs to happen quickly before a Pirate announcer bungles it.
Like they Bungle the play by play calls. Some of those guys drive me crazy before the 5th pitch of the game. Pirates announcers have to be the top 5 worst crews in the league.
PNC Park, Greg Brown and Bob Walk are the only good things the Pirates have left.
They do have alcohol for us fans to get us through the game. Eases the pain of losing
Really? You can’t drag me down to your miserable pit of negativity.
Besides numerous players, I think the other color announcers are excellent:
Fort McHenry, Kevin Young are outstanding.
I haven’t heard McHenry, but McKenry might be worse at color than he was at baseball
You are right zeph. These clowns want the announcers to be quiet and not get excited. Thats their job. Total yinzer remark
And your a worse troll than the bald idiot
Let’s go Bucs
As someone who liked the Davis pick to begin with, this is great news.
Add in the news that Bubba Chandler is likely to sign and this draft was a huge W for Ben.
Already an A+ draft if they can nab one of Lonnie or Solometo too… signing both would be bonus
How long before he’s traded for an declining pitcher?
Considering the guy who made that trade was fired… never.
Kozy-That McCutcheon trade was even worse.
It’s obvious you don’t what the return was for McCutchen.
Would you give back Cutch for Reynolds now? You are brilliant baseball mind!
Phil’s would give Cutch to ANYONE if they took his contract!
Kozy and Buc- You are both brilliant.
The saving grace for NH was his recent trades,Archer notwithstanding.
Do you think that the Pirates had $70M for a declining star like Cutch,even as great as he was for them?
Neither do I.
Subtlety and sarcasm are lost on both of you.Too many posters on here think that the Archer trade was typical.Too many are just trolls or negative on the Pirates.Subtlety and sarcasm are a way that some deal with such incompetents.
Think about it before you send such replies.
You could always spell McCutchen correctly and make a less arbitrary connection that made sense. Maybe you’re just not very good at subtlety and sarcasm.
Or maybe you are very good at nitpicking.
Idiot
overreaction much?
New material please
#lazycheappiratestake
Still scratching my head over Archer and Cole trades. Do they have a scouting department or just watch youtube videos?
I really don’t think the Cole trade was terrible. The guy wasn’t great in Pittsburgh. Needed to study under Strom to reach his potential. Pittsburgh also got some steady MLB players. The Archer trade was bad from the start.
Sure the Cole trade seems to be bad for the Pirates, but in all seriousness, the Pirates got Musgrove and Moran plus 3 others I can’t remember at this time. Musgrove got the Pirates young prospects and Moran can get the Pirates something too. Maybe a low A prospect unless he starts to hit soon. The Cole trade is fairly even if you ask me. Cole never won a World Series in Houston and moved on to the Yankees. He is making postseason appearances like he did with Pittsburgh with both Yankees and Astros. If anything, Pirates gained more in that trade than Houston has.
Archer trade, was an over buy and top 5 worst trades in MLB of all time. Rays are the Rays and are known to push the right buttons to get great players when teams are desperate. It’s basically robbery by the Rays and you can’t fault them. When another organization is just throwing a “Hail Mary” and comes up empty in the end, it tells you how bad things were with the front office. It’s a new change now and I am slowly getting interest back into watching and/or following the Pirates. After the Archer trade, I did not pay attention to the Pirates.
Scratch your crotch. Thats all mazzilli did
@MilwaukeeStrong
At least a year.
Cherrington’s track record of stocking a farm system is under way. He needs a 5 year leash in order to properly assess what he’s done in the early years of his tenure.
If he can’t turn this team back into a winner, Huntington realllyyyyyyy needs to sit himself down for a talk.
It’s been underway for quite a while now. Just look at what the farm system looked like when he took over compared to now. Got 11 prospects in the three big trades this off season (most of which rank as top prospects by FanGraphs), got 2 other notable prospects in his first trade as Pirate GM, last year’s draft, the International Signing day, and R5 draft.
Neal H. Also got some decently regarded talent stocked in there.. hopefully Ben’s revamped team can prepare them for the MLB better than the previous staff.
Stocking the farm has never been the Pirates problem. Developing talent is where we have, by and large, failed to turn those “Top 5” farm leagues in to productive big leaguers.
So far Cherington seems to be handling the gig well. One thing I would love to hear from him in an article is how he is approaching this part of the game. What hires have been made at what positions, and what strategically will be done differently to change this dark cloud that has been over our farm leagues for years
I think that about some reams all the time. Why some teams are spitting out stars yearly and other teams just prospect flops. I would think that is your best investment.
Need to promote the talent as quick as possible to expose them to MLB coaching
If they truly believe in Shelton and his staff they need to show it unlike keeping Polanco on the farm an extra four months to “learn right field”
there was a handful of stories last year on additions/promotions/subtractions from the staffs.
Some where kept, some where replaced some where promoted.. I don’t know where the problem was/is but if anyone is going to spot it, it seems like it would be Ben
so far very good.. but let’s not forget that Neal had amazing drafts too.
When Nutting starts slipping memos that state “trade x players salary by y date.”
Is when the pirates rebuild really hits a wall…
Exciting that a rebuild is in motion tho and a lot of new young talent coming through the ranks over the next few years.
They have since traded Davis to the Rays for garbage…
And player to be named later.
Really?
The Pirates are working on a deal to sign their #1 pick?
Who woulda thunk it?
That was my first thought, but it is a good enough rumor to be on here that they’re already close to a deal. Some top picks take up until the deadline to sign.
Yup, gotta agree with the snark.. There is a slightly interesting discussion attached to it, but basically, all thirty teams are trying to sign their #1. And their #2. Etc.
Ended up being a pretty interesting topic of people would stop wasting their time being negative.
Pretty wild the top pick settled for 2 mil less than capped.
Pirates draft class could be goated
Yuforreal-Are you for real?
The typical rubes trying to bring up past Pirate GM’s are fools for ignoring actual progress being made. Tired jokes and cliche after cliche. This draft, the previous draft, and the trades made by Cherington have been nothing short of spectacular so far. With Musgrove coming back to earth each of those deals have yielded pretty solid returns considering what was given up.
Well done.
I’m aware they got a new gm. Sign all your draft picks and then I’ll be impressed.
Great post! Tired of the idiots taking time from their jobs at McDonalds to post!
McDonalds workers work hard. It’s a legitimate job. Office workers making many times as much have it a lot easier.
Hey they are getting 15.00 an hour here.
You should know. You work there
Padres AJ Preller gave up too much talent/got hosed for Musgrove….. Not surprising…
While I have just as much love for Theo Lite as any other Red Sox fan (that is a lot, btw), it’s hard to overlook the Pirates’ owner as being awful. I live in West Virginia, close to where the Black Bears play, so maybe I’ll pop on up to see this guy play
You are not gonna see Davis nor any other Pirates prospect if you go to a Black Bears game……..
Let’s hope he doesn’t become another Steve Chilcott, the catcher best known for being drafted before Reggie Jackson.
I met a guy the other day who went to school with Chilcott back in day and he told me about that cannon of an arm and his raw talent and how wrecked by the injury he was
Wow. That’s a real shame. In 55 years or so of the amateur draft, only Chilcott and Brien Taylor are the only number one picks to never appear in the majors. I hope that Davis makes it.
Next is brady aiken was gonna be appel but he may make it yet
A bit under slot. 2 million is more than a bit by my definition. If they sign all these guys then this is the best draft by a large amount. Pirates will be 2021 best farm system champions.
I hope he gets the full slot value or at least close to it. Because the Pirates future nucleus is in A-ball, i’m sure he will get jerked around in the coming years, service time manipulation, etc.
Why in the world as a so called bucsfan would you say you hope he gets full slot value? Him getting full slot value means it’s unlikely they are unable to sign the other players they selected with their first 4 picks. Are you a player fan or a team fan?
Keeps bringing up what Huntington did and Littlefield before him. Cherington has a rep of moving pieces through. Pieces are actually in AA and A+ball many will be promoted to AAA and AA soon. Time to start willing should be 2023. Can;t wait to see what Cherington does in the trade market now and over the winter and next years draft. He has been building a great system.
When Cherington can win the most games in MLB over a 3 year period (hard to believe that there wasn’t a division title in there), then I will put Benny over NH. NH stocked the farm system, too, but the development part was bad. Will Ben’s development be any better? Way too early to tell.
Lee- NH was bad with his first few trades and the Archer deal.Mediocre with the Cole trade.
Pretty much did well with the rest of them
Drafting was mediocre,and development worse.He realized it too late to save his job.
This draft was great.
BC seems to be attuned to drafting.We will see with development.
I am withholding total judgement until I see his return for Frazier and Rodriguez.These are two very good players who have to be traded but he needs to get much more for either than he got for Marte.
Lee-It must be noted that there was unfortunately one team in MLB that won more games during that three year long period than the Pirates and they unfortunately were in the same division.
@Mendoza Line Hey BC did well for Boston years ago and got Mookie Betts, J.D Martinez, and several others. Some of those players was through trade and draft as well. I’d say just J.D and Mookie alone, tell me he can develop prospects on the offensive side. As for pitching, Boston literally got their pitching from other clubs. That is my only concern with BC is the development of pitchers. Other than that, he’s done a really good job building that system. I think 2025 is a solid effort at contention. Sadly, Reynolds will be gone and Hayes will be a trade piece that year.
Martinez was traded for as you say but I do not think that he was raised in the Sox minor league system.
Reynolds could be a candidate for some actual money being spent by Nutting on a player.That is one of the reasons that they need to show real improvement next year so that he sees a light at the end of the tunnel.
Hayes has cooled off from a fine start.Pitchers quickly catch up to the hitters as the scouting is first rate now.I think that he is filling out and getting stronger and that he will be fine as a ML third baseman.
Hed an idiot like the baldtroll
U better hope he doesn’t. If he does- y’all aren’t signing all of your next 3 picks
He’s not. This was preplanned and discussed prior to the draft. That agreement allowed the Pirates to be able to go over slot with the college and high school arms they drafted.
Catchers generally take longer to develop anyway…if you actually let them develop as catchers. I know there are questions about Davis’ work behind the plate, but I assume the pirates will at least try to develop him as a catcher and not just rush him for the bat.
@1984wasntamanual Davis major concern is pitch framing. Which is going to be no concern once the robotic umpire comes in and calls pitches. Catcher has been one of the toughest positions going through the system. It won’t be in a few years anyways. A pitcher could sit behind the plate when the robots come in to call pitches. Can you imagine a robot throwing out a manager for challenging balls and strikes?
I imagine it would go something like this:
Manager: what b*****t is this Rosey? The f*******g ball was off the plate!
Robotic ump: (Beep Beep) Listen George, it was a strike and I will call your wife Jane to pick you up if you want to continue to argue.
Managers son: Dad stop!
Manager: Elory just go play fetch with Astro! (Turns to Robotic Ump) Now you listen here Rosey (finger in robotics chest), you call a fair game and stop gives calls to Judy!
Robotic Ump: (beep beep) George you need to leave! (Beep beep) You are out of here and Jane is on the way! (Turns from manager and heads to charging station)
The new era of baseball should be interesting watching the Jetsons coming to life, eh?
This is from fangraphs – “He also has issues with lateral mobility, ball-blocking, and throwing accuracy.”
MLB teams are built around their Catcher.
All things being near equal, Mr. Cherington and his staff picked the right guy – and I doubt it had anything to do with saving money for lower slots….that was a bonus.
After being a fall guy (along with Terry Francona) for Red Sox front office politics, Ben moved on and built up the Jays farm system. Now he’s working with his farm director to turn the Pirates into a power. This is fun to watch for any MLB fan – in or out of Pittsburgh.
Very few MLB teams are built around their catcher. Royals and Cardinals are about the only two I can think of. And even saying Cardinals is probably pushing it at this point.
Catcher is a very important position, but it is rarely a position to build a team around. BUT a good catcher can make average pitchers look good and good pitchers look great.
MLB teams are built around their Catcher.
Whether FO’s do it on purpose or not.
“I am wrong, but I’m just going to say it again like it’s a factual statement”
@hiflew Joe Girardi of the Yankees, Jason Varitek of Red Sox, Buster Posey Giants, Yadier Molina Cardinals, and many other past and present catcher won a World Series because of these guys. Their abilities to work with the pitching staff while having successful careers, made it possible to win a World Series. Look at the highly marked offensive loaded teams with a mediocre catcher. They aren’t winning a World Series and even some can’t win period. Angels, Phillies, Yankees, and Cleveland come to mind with plenty of dollar signs but no real catcher to help the pitching staff in away to achieve their goals. Yankees Sanchez is not the best guy behind the dish. Look at his stats at the position. With the Yankees pitching staff, they should be owning the AL East right now. That falls on poor catching and Yankees fans and organizations is trying to unload Sanchez to get someone else in.
Your argument became null and void when you said that Cleveland didn’t have a good catcher and they had “plenty of dollar signs.”
Cleveland had a strong defensive catcher for their entire run.
The Yankees were not built around Joe Girardi. The Red Sox were not built around Varitek. They were both complementary pieces. I could believe Posey although I still think their pitching won them their titles, and I mentioned Molina in my original comment.
BUT the thing you aren’t mentioning is that I was referring to CURRENT teams. Joe Girardi hasn’t played in 20 years. You might as well bring up Yogi Berra or Gabby Hartnett. Salvador Perez is arguably the only catcher that an MLB team is built around RIGHT NOW. Posey…maybe. Yadi…at one time, but not now. Realmuto is the best catcher but the Phillies are not built around him.
Agreed, build around maybe not unless it is an mvp type player in which you would build around regardless of the position 🙂
Catcher is the most important defensive position.. they have soo much to do, involved in every play and touch the ball more than anyone on the field. A bad defensive catcher can really hurt you.
Davis looks like he should be around average and has a rocket launcher arm.
I actually like watching and rooting for the Pirates. But don’t you dare ask me to do the same for their football team.
The Pirates have a football team?
Sarcasm State University has you for a QB?
Well they were called the Pirates too…. 88 years ago when they were first founded…. 🙂
leefieux: Yeah, they’re called the Buccaneers!
sufferfortribe2: I’m in a similar boat going the opposite direction. I’m a Pirate fan, originally from WV. I grew up watching the Pirates, Penguins & Steelers. My family moved to NE Ohio in ’86. I still follow my roots but I like to see the Indians do good, but you’ll never see me root for the Browns (except when I’m rooting for them to lose).
Suffer-It seems that a new age has developed for the Browns against the Steelers.
One thing good about football is with the salary cap bad teams can become good ones fairly quickly.
I think they have the right guy for the job in Cherrington. Ownership on the other hand is a problem. Hopefully they’ll step aside when it’s time to supplement their homegrown talent with free agent pieces. I’d say in about four years the Buccos will be a force to be reckoned with
Damn right. Cherington is a beast.. Nutting is a different story.
Nutting will put money into the team if they are close to competing.
He just will not sign high priced free agents which much more often than not end up wasting money.
Seems to me that their bankroll was reasonably high from 2013-2015.
The bucs are the perfect scenario for cherrington. Consistently suck, and draft at the top of the first round. He’s going to amass a ton of decent prospects, but will always be afraid to relinquish any to get to the world series. I expect the pirates to be if china-imitated the tampa bay rays. Sure, they will be priced better, but will last like 1-2 years total.
What makes you think he will be afraid to relinquish any prospects? Or is this some bling Pirate bashing?
Anybody know a website that has done research on what us the best success rate on prospects draft from college / high school or international signing?
Google it. There’s plenty of studies out there.
Multiple things can be true at the same time.
Cherington can, in fact, be doing a good job accumulating talent.
And people can be skeptical because the ownership, market and fan base remain the same.
But, and I know Pirates’ fans don’t have much to hang their hat on, the mindset of “just wait…2026 is gonna be OUR year!” is both kinda sad…and unlikely.
In reality, Cherington can do a terrific job and still fall well short of Huntingdon’s high water mark. Those Pirates teams were ahead of the curve on many industry trends. Now that big market teams have caught up, the window that existed in the early 2010’s for Hurdle’s playoff teams will be much slimmer, if it will exist at all.
If the Cubs continue to be bizarrely cheap relative to their revenues, that will help a little, though.
Didn’t the Rays make the World Series a couple of times with a league average low payroll?!
Marlins won 2 World Series titles will low budget teams etc…
Josh- He was just a Cubs fan.
HiFlew-
You ever hear of a catcher name Buster Posey and the San Francisco Giants?
World champions in 2010, 2012, 2014.. Every poster here in MLB wishes their team could accomplish that. Those teams were built AROUND Buster.
AdAmM
You ever hear that it is now 2021 and the Giants are not built around Posey anymore. I would argue that MadBum and the rest of the Giants starting staff had far more to do with their three titles. Much like this year.
Posey was the freakin NL MVP in 2012…
Yes. And that doesn’t mean the team was built around him or that he was the reason for their title. MadBum and Matt Cain were still the reason for them to be in the playoffs. And the Reds epic collapse was the reason for their WS run.
Have you heard of….every other WS winner in the history of baseball that doesn’t have a star at catcher? Posey is a good player…but using the example of one team that had an awesome catcher doesn’t mean that’s some sort of rule.
Go look @ the 2019 Nats
1-Besides the Nats, the LAD used a rookie catcher, Houston had a past his prime McCann, the Cubs had a mediocre catcher, and KC had the early pre-star Perez. And even though the RS had Tek, they also won with Salty.
2-The thing about WS winners, is that they usually have good players everywhere.. So if you take a look at 10 wS winners, 7 might have a good CF, or good SS, etc.
The Pirates have new staff, but unfortunately the same cheap owner. Pirates will always be trying to save money so even with competent staff the bottom line will remain the same.
Somewhat off topic the Pirates drafted a Vermonter in the 4th round. As a Vermonter I am now a Pirates fan…
Let go-And Calvin Coolidge would have become one also.
How long before another MLB team throws more money at Cherrington and he leaves? Why wouldn’t he? Cherrington knows the limitations of Bob Nutting’s tight-fisted rule.
Different teams wanted Cherrington. He told them no. Nutting signed him. Those facts tell you something about Cherrington and Nutting.
My memory could be failing me but I vaguely recall Cherington saying while he was in Toronto that he would only leave there in order to build a franchise from the ground up. Aside from the Rockies he probably picked the best organization to do that in Pittsburgh. He won’t be leaving for awhile.
The difference between the top 5ish prospects was so slim. the only differences.. Pitcher or Postion player. High School or College. Pirates choice is pretty clear.. they need a catcher and a player who will be ‘ready’ before 2025.
Only reason he ‘should’ go underslot is because he is coming out of college and may not have a chance to be #1 again. My wild guess is that he’d still sign for 8M. Even if they pay slot value for these top guys they’ll have plenty of slot space.
Staying under the Lose a Pick draft slot tax.. they have about 15m to work with if needed. If Ben believes in these guys I have little doubt he would be comfortable pushing it if needed.
Davis had great 2020/21 seasons.. granted that wa only abotu 60 games…
Impressive draft, but time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s! Need to net extra slot value to get other picks signed. Faster this can be accomplished the better. Longer you wait the closer college gets for a few and do not want them reporting to college. That being said, if enough can be shaved from Davis and senior college players they can get these guys signed. Looking at slot value it doesn’t take much to push a pick’s value up the chart. Now we see if Cherington can deliver the goods!
I follow the draft fairly closely, and I’ll agree with BA; if they get everybody signed, this could be a franchise-changing draft. Kuddos to Cherrington and company. Davis’ ceiling may only be solid regular, but Bubba Chandler is a Glassnow clone (now let’s hope they don’t trade him for Rich Hill).
It’s a good draft at worst (which, given where they picked and allotments, was a no-brainer); a tremendous one at best, IMHO it’s closer to the latter.
A good strategy by Cherington and the Pirates. While eventually there was a consensus around which player people thought the Pirates would take at #1, there really wasn’t a *strong* consensus on who should be the #1 pick. This draft had a number of good potential picks for the #1, but there was no Cole, Harper, Strasburg, A-Rod, Griffey, etc. level player that screamed out as the obvious top pick. Decent probability that the very best player selected in this year’s draft wasn’t even in the top 10. Based on that, getting one of the very top players at #1, but significantly under slot, will enable the Pirates to add multiple good players and deepen the farm.
Teams win championships with catchers who hit below .250 all the time. But. They are catchers. Offense is gravy. Many great teams have had backbone catchers and would not have been successful without those backbone catchers. In fact, many teams that fall short can expect a better result with a better catcher, not a better hitter who happens to catch, but a better catcher. Not a bad place to start.
Nice job by the entire organization with this pick and hopefully getting 3 of 4 of or better the other other picks signed! The Penn State guy will be a challenge
Maybe not. Rumor has it that White,Jr. is signing. He has said nothing since he has been picked. That means they are still discussing and he is very interested. He will get ~ $2 million or a little better. That would be hard to turn down.
MUCH lower than i expected. Henry must see something other than dollars. ‘easier’ path to the mlb maybe? not much in front of him catcher wise. Not complaining
Well done.
He seen that Lieter Mayer Lawlar were going to be taken ahead of him. And a few other teams are known to do outside of the box things. So his choice was to take 6.5 and go number 1 or take his chances and see how far he drops.