by Matt Shetler
As expected, negotiations between the Bucs and their top two picks in this season’s amateur draft will likely continue right until the end of Monday’s midnight deadline.
As they’ve shown in the past four years, the Bucs have done a fine job building through the draft and have continued that this season. The Pirates have spent the most money in baseball when it comes to signing their draft picks and currently have done another solid job coming to terms with a majority of their picks.
For the most part, after coming to terms with 12th-round pick outfielder Candon Myles, most of the Pirates’ top 20 picks have been signed.
That leaves the two big names in No. 1 overall pick pitcher Gerrit Cole and second-round pick outfielder Josh Bell with which the Pirates must come to terms before Monday’s deadline.
Cole, the righty from UCLA, is advised by Scott Boras, so the negotiations will definitely go right to the deadline. Cole is currently seeking Stephen Strasburg money, who signed a record $15.067 million contract that included a record $7.5 million bonus in 2009.
It’s not unusual for Boras to seek a record contract for the top pick so we will see where that goes. In the end, I don’t believe it’s a question of whether or not the Pirates sign Cole, but the only question is for how much money.
Like they have done with other prospects set on heading to college, the Pirates strategy has been to simply buy the thought of college away from these guys. Offer them enough money and they will sign. That strategy may not work with Bell.
It was thought that it would take between $4-6 million to land Bell, a number I think the Pirates are willing to offer. However, some of the latest reports have Bell seeking as much as $10 million.
That figure is similar to what it took for the Washington Nationals to sign Bryce Harper in 2010, which is insane.
While Bell has made it known he wasn’t interested in signing, the feeling lately had been he was leaning more towards the Pirates’ way, but the Bucs won’t go too high on Bell.
The overall feeling is that both guys will go right down to the deadline and that the Pirates will come to terms with both.
Cole, as I mentioned, will be a case of how much he’s signing for and while Bell may be asking for $10 million now, he will sign for a figure between $5.25- $5.75 million. That’s simply too much money for a kid to walk away from.
Adding these two into the system just strengthens the organization and adds to what the Pirates have been stockpiling the past four years.
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