It appears that signability was a big factor in the Blue Jays’ 2015 draft as they have announced that they’ve signed 30 of their 40 draftees already.
The signed players include eight of their top 10 picks with first-rounder Jon Harris coming in at exactly slot value and all of the others reported at slot value or less.
Players who have reported to have signed include third rounder Justin Maese at just $300,000 (with a slot value at $636,400), Carl Wise at $450 K (just under slot at $461,200), J.C. Cardenas at $250 K (slot was $258,400), Travis Bergen at $170 K (slot was $193,900), Connor Panas at $10 K (slot was $159,300) and Owen Spiwak at $100 K (slot was $149,700). Fifth rounder Jose Espada has signed but we don’t have an idea of how much he signed for.
The only real “senior sign” in the top 10 rounds was Canadian third baseman Connor Panas who played at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.
The Blue Jays have about $2.2 million left in their bonus cap left to be able to sign two players, meaning that second rounder Brady Singer and eighth rounder Daniel Young could take home over slot bonuses and the Blue Jays were waiting until they got more of the other signings done to get an idea of how much they would be able to go over slot to sign these two.
Of the players left to be signed, 11th rounder Marrick Crouse could be a tough sign as a high school pitcher while high school shortstop Daniel Perry has been reported to leaning towards going to college. 17th rounder Chandler Eden is taking some time to make a decision, as is 25th rounder Ryan Feltner while toolsy high schooler Reggie Pruitt announced on Twitter that he’d be going to Vanderbilt University next year. First baseman/DH Gabe Clark could very well return for a senior year at Oregon State and 29th rounder Kyle Davis could also return for his final year in college. High school lefty Randy Labault also remains unsigned.
The Blue Jays have signed a fairly large number of non-drafted free agents, almost all of them pitchers, this year and we’ll discuss them in a later post. Nate Abel out of Flagier College was the only left-handed pitcher while the Jays inked righties Ryan Cook (University of Richmond), Zach Rodgers (UCF), John Kravetz (University of Illinois-Champaign), Griffin Glaude from Lyon College, Mike Estevez (Alabama State) and Gunnar Eastman (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). The Jays signed Nash Knight, a third baseman, out of Dallas Baptist University as the only position player.
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