Draft update

Right now we have saved $264,400 from our draft budget.   If you add that to the 5% overage we are allowed before we lose a draft pick, we have $721,600 above budget to play with.

I don't have the bonus figure for Cody Morris (ranked 292, drafted 223) yet and we can't sign Steven Kwan (drafted 163, ranked 262) because he is still playing in the College World Series but I can envision them saving another $135,000 from those two based on where they were ranked vs the spot they were drafted.

This assumes that we sign Naylor for slot.  Given that his ranking was pretty solid during the year and he was drafted about where he was ranked, that is a pretty good assumption.

Thus we likely will have $400,000 (if we don't want to pay a penalty) to $850,000 to play with if we have to go over slot for guys.

So where would we use this money?

Hankins - The guy was in the conversation to go #1 overall this past winter.   So you have to imagine that $2 million won't be enough to sign him.   Let's assume it will take $2.5 to get him to sign.

If that is the case and we have that money left it will mean we are roughly $100,000 into the penalty area where we have to give MLB $100,000 to match this overage.

So, if we want to keep going, who is left?

1. I think Kaleb Hill is out of the question.   I think he was a flyer if Hankins or Torres didn't sign.

2. Korey Holland is interesting.  I think it might take $1 million to get him to sign (he was rated just a little lower than Delgado and has a strong commitment to Texas, judging by his Twitter page).  So my guess is he doesn't sign.

3. Antoine Duplantis - If we spend any more money I think it will be on DuPlantis.  Ranked #205 I can't imagine him making any more than $200,000 as a senior signing so I think $250,000 would likely cause him to sign and get his pro career started.

If they have the money I think DuPlantis is going to get signed.  As far as Holland, I doubt it.  Hill is a definite no.  There may be some other signings but I doubt that any of them will be over slot although we might go to $150,000 if we really want a guy.

The Indians are still a small market club.  There is a distinct possibility that they might not spend any money above slot at all if they need a good chunk above slot to sign Hankins.  They would still sign guys who would sign for slot but remember they would be gauging a guy's worth on the actual cost to sign him.   So, while DuPlantis might sign for $250,000, with penalty his bonus cost to the Indians would be $375,000.