The Athletics have agreed to terms with first-round pick Jacob Wilson, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com. Wilson will receive a signing bonus of $5.5MM, well below the $6.63MM slot value for the sixth overall pick.
Wilson, 21, is the son of Jack Wilson, who played in the majors from 2001 to 2012 and was an All-Star with the Pirates in 2004. The younger Wilson is a shortstop who attended Grand Canyon University. He hit .412/.461/.635 in 49 games for the Antelopes this year, stealing eight bases in the process. Elite contact ability is a standout trait of his, as he was only punched out in 4.4% of his college plate appearances.
Coming into the draft, he was a consensus top 25 guy in the draft class, though none of the major outlets ranked him as high as he was chosen. Baseball America was the most bullish, ranking him #9, while both MLB.com and FanGraphs had him at #10, ESPN at #17 and Keith Law of the Athletic placed Wilson 24th. All outlets generally consider him strong enough defensively to stick at shortstop. The hit tool gets the highest praise while his power potential is the greatest unknown at the moment.
Although none of those outlets had Wilson as high as sixth in the class, where he was selected, but his $5.5MM bonus is closer to the value of the 10th overall pick. By saving over a million on their first-rounder, perhaps the A’s will have more cash to spread around to their other selections.
Between their bad luck in the draft lottery and this “safe” pick Oakland didn’t do itself any favor on draft day.
It’s alright, virtually nobody cares. They lost most of their fans with the Gordon Gecko style teardown and move plans. Vegas didn’t care much about the Raiders and I doubt there’s an overflow of excitement for the A’s. Right now we have the equivalent of somebody faking a job search so they can collect unemployment.
“By saving over a million on their first-rounder, perhaps the A’s will have more cash to spread around to their other selections.”
Haha, why would they do that?
Echavarria just signed for 3mil. Biggest overslot deal of the draft.
Wow, wanted my Rockies to get him… but not at that price!
1st round money. Expectations are now raised. Hope the kid delivers.
A’s and Pirates both in the top 5 most profitable franchises last year. Manfred is a joke of an empty suit and nobody is stopping them from embezzling revenue sharing funds. They’re not gonna stop until there’s an adult in the room.
Fake news
Fake brain
“By saving over a million on their first-rounder, perhaps the A’s will have more cash to spread around to their other selections.”
OR … Fisher will make sure the savings go into his pocket.
Echavarria is going to eat up some of the savings. They’re going well over slot for him:
Their 4th rounder Cole Miller will get go way over slot too…unless he goes to UCLA
Yep, for sure. I don’t mind the savings to go for 2 prep pitchers like they did.
Echavarria got paid – $2m over his draft slot today, reported by Jim Callis.
Cole Miller also got $350k more than his draft slot today, also tweeted by MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis.
> By saving over a million on their
> first-rounder, perhaps the A’s will
> not be good anytime soon.
Fixed.
So negative. Let these guys become ‘us against the world’ guys. They’re all young early-mid twenties. The focus should be on getting what they have, pulling together not everyone hating on them. Terrible situation they are in. They drafted pretty well actually if you’re up on your college/high school talent so A’s fans let focus on the team pulling together and making everyone else around ya better instead of being so negative. They were just as bad before the Olson Chapman mini era. Go A’s!!!!!!
Dude they gave away Murphy who is an MVP candidate for a guy who is really fast and can’t hit. And Murphy wasn’t even a soon to be free agent.
Their big league club is record breaking bad and their prospect pool isn’t all that good either. They deserve criticism.
Oakland wasn’t going to turn Murphy into an MVP candidate nor compete in the next 2 seasons he was under control. They haven’t developed much recently and they definitely didn’t get a signature headliner like one would expect.
Kyle Muller will be a fine reliever once they accept that’s his role. & Tarnok has back of the rotation starter qualities too. Esteury Ruiz will need to turn into Ketel Marte for this to look good for them though.
He had 3 years of control left not 2.
I understand why the traded him that’s not the problem. It’s the return they got for him that’s the problem.
Yeah I was talking about from today. They won’t be good next year or the year after either. I’m not sure why they didn’t trade for further off prospects with higher ceilings. Ruiz has a very high ceiling but his probability of putting all that together is very slim.
Yeah they went for a high ceiling with Ruiz but they should have gotten more. Then they get a low ceiling guy in the draft. I know there was a big 5 but this isn’t the guy I would have taken at 6.
He has 1 home run in over 300 at bats. His OBP is 310.
Yes. He’s that bad of a hitter.
Oakland still would have had Chapman and Murphy (and I think Olson). Instead they let every free agent go, traded away the entire core, and used the new union deal to continue embezzling revenue sharing funds. Don’t think we need to pretend that the trades were a serious attempt at running a franchise.
Hey at least you got basketball man. Take solace in that.
But, but muh trades!! An A’s fan talking sense? Nooooo, you must be a FISHER!!!
FISHERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
“By saving over a million on their first-rounder, perhaps the A’s will have more cash to spread around to their other selections.”
Steve Cohen having a heart attack rn.
I don’t have much faith in the Oakland Athletics scouting department. They drafted Billy McKinney instead of Aaron Judge.
In the 31st round to start a relationship……
They passed him on him for Billy when the important draft came around….Common occurrence to miss but that makes the reality.
Their skills have always been the waiver wire and dumpster diving for solid free agents, especially pitching. Most of the young talent of the moneyball era was already there when Beane took over and we basically didn’t develop a single high quality hitter until the recent Olson/Chapman/Murphy team.
I like Wilson but was surprised at him going this early. Now it makes more sense. The A’s knew his number or close to it.
Safe in the first round, more upside in rounds 2 and 4.
I actually like this strategy. Especially for a smaller market/payroll club.
A’s and their shortstop fetish . He better find somehow to become Robin Yount , or at least Jed Lowrie or I’ll be pissed at their collection of misfit shortstops . Not like I’m not already pissed .
If it makes you feel any better, Max Muncy was just promoted to AA.