The Toronto Blue Jays and the rest of Major League Baseball are getting close to the deadline to sign all their draft picks.
That deadline is July 27. On Sunday the Blue Jays reportedly reached a deal with third-round pick Will Brick. It set a record, but the trick is how they did it.
Toronto apparently wanted Brick, a catcher from Christian Brothers High School in Tennessee, badly. So much so that the Blue Jays agreed to pay him $2.5 million in a signing bonus, per MLB Pipeline . That's notable because it's the highest signing bonus ever given to a third-round pick and Brick's slot bonus was set at $582,000.
For a third-round pick, that's a massive number. A team like the Blue Jays can't just overpay by $2 million without compensating elsewhere. Toronto has a bonus pool, and it can't exceed it. But it can use the bonus pool any way it pleases. So, Toronto swung different deals with other draft picks to make up the difference.
First-round pick Cole Carlon, a pitcher from Arizona State, agreed to a deal worth $2.4 million. That's below his $2.571 million slot bonus. That's not nearly enough. So, the Blue Jays underpaid other draft picks.
Per their MLB Draft tracker , the Blue Jays have agreed to pay fourth-round pick, Nolan Higgins, a pitcher from Michigan State, $2,500. Toronto will play fifth-round pick Gable Mitchell, a shortstop from Iowa, just $5,000.
Both had slot bonuses assigned to their picks. Higgins could have been paid $421,000 and Mitchell could have been paid $330,000. Both have something in common - they are each fourth-year seniors. It means they can't return to school. Toronto used that to its advantage and paid them small bonuses because the players had no choice but to accept them.
The Blue Jays did the same thing with three other fourth-year seniors - eighth-round pick Jake Bennett of Dallas Baptist, ninth-round pick Joey Urban of Southern Miss and 10th round pick Bryce Chance of Mississippi State. The trio made a combined $6,000.
Combined, the five could have been paid $1.068 million. Instead they made a combined $13,500 and the Blue Jays saved $1.054 million to pass on to Brick.
Brick was the No. 46 ranked player in the draft per MLB Pipeline. He was committed to Mississippi State. Toronto wanted him to start his pro career right away. Sometimes, money talks - if you can manipulate the system to find it.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/bluejays/onsi as How Blue Jays Set MLB Draft Third-Round Bonus Record to Sign Prep Star .
