In the DSL all-star game, pitcher Sann Omosako faced two hitters. One reached on an error and the second one popped up.

Ramon Suarez struck out the side in his inning of work. Suarez is 20, a little old for the DSL and a reliever. In the DSL this season he has 29 K's in 17.2 innings and a 0.74 WHIP.

Suarez missed all of 2023.

According to milb.com, the Jaya have signed draftees: Mitchell, Holcombe, Cunningham, Tibbitts, Freethy, and Todd.

Keys, Stephen and Wentworth also confirmed per Bluejays.com transactions. Not considered difficult signs so no surprises. That's 11 out of the top 16 so far.

Nice. That leaves Yesavage, King, Parker, Cates, Micheletti, and Messina from the first 15 rounds.

Wentworth at Keys more or less at slot. Stephen was $1.12 and slot was $1.49 so savings there for sure.

The FCL finishes this week so the college players signing will have to go to Dunedin or stay at the complex.

Ramon Suarez was awarded best breaking ball (shared) at the DSL all star game by Baseball America. Here is their report:

Suarez was the only pitcher to strike out the side. He did so with the help of a curveball that flashed power and finish through the zone. Despite garnering swings and misses, Suarez’s hook was inconsistent. It’s unlikely to be effective against more advanced hitters without further refinement. At its best, though, it had the makings of a pitch that could be dropped over the front shoulder of a lefty and onto the outside corner. Suarez signed in 2022 as an 18-year-old, then missed all of 2023 while on the 60-day injured list.

Good to see with Suarez. The DSL team overall has shown more promise than in recent years.

6th rounder Aaron Parker signs for 27k below slot.

8th rounder Eddie Micheletti signs for 147.5k, 61.5k below slot.

He put up really good numbers at Virginia Tech after transferring, but assumed he'd be closer to 100k.

Courtesy of Carlos Collazo :

11th rounder Troy Guthrie: $200,000 ($50K goes towards bonus pool)
13th rounder Brock Tibbitts: $150,000
14th rounder JR Freethy: $150,000
15th rounder Jonathan Todd: $5,000
16th rounder Colby Martin: $75,000
18th rounder Holden Wilkerson: $150,000

If my math is correct, the Jays have saved $662.5k against slot, with King, Yesavage, and Cates still to sign. With the signing of Guthrie, that's $612.5k. With overages, that puts us at $1,061,850 to spread around.

Here's a Signing Tracker from Prospects Live that follows the money

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16dymJu1v1f0YOoYa4-upLFvt-AkC_FCR59rvjTy48bk/edit?gid=71121024#gid=71121024

Article from the 18th.

"Gavin is expected to sign with the Blue Jays next week when he returns home from Alberta, his father said."

https://www.inmaricopa.com/toronto-blue-jays-draft-hidden-valley-18-year-old/

Thanks Mendoncino.

https://x.com/JonathanMayo/status/1815534909701931134?t=W2s4Wwzq4wwkNUF5uPyszQ&s=19

King gets 1.25m.

Excellent

Thanks to all for the signing update.

Checking MLB I see picks #1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11-20 as unsigned. Doing a quick math bit from the Jays site I see they have signed 5 guys, saved a net of $84,900 vs cap. They can overspend by 5% with only a cash penalty (75% of overage) which adds $449,230 to their budget, so the max they can go is $534,130 over the base this year (5% plus the saved $84.9k) assuming they sign all of their players from the first 10 rounds (11 players). Rounds 11-20 are limited to $150k each, any overage comes from the cap I mentioned above.

John, that MLB Draft Tracker has not been updated. They have signed many of those players already.

Dang, should've read through everyone's comments - great link mendocino. No shock the MLB site is behind as this wouldn't be a priority to them. So just 1,3, and 7 left from the first 10 rounds now, plus 12, 17, 19, 20. $6.1528 mil left in budget, $5.0939 is slot for the first 10 round guys left, leaving $1,058,900 in cap space over slot. Gotta figure some of that is for tough to sign 11-20 guys. Just noticed, that link doesn't have King's signing for $1.25 (slot $767,200) which eats up $482,800 of that space, leaving $576,100 room for 1/7/12/17/19/20 - #7 was unranked so should be sub slot, #12 ranked #222 and in high school so could be tough, 17 unranked HS could be tough, 19 ranked #153 & HS so very tough, #20 unranked college so should be signable. Pick #153 gets $435.60k in cap space so #19 might demand that much (remove $150k and that costs $285k extra from pool). #12 being #222 would want at least #222's cap space of $244.30k I'd think (another $94k over budget). Also gotta factor in that Trey Yesavage was ranked #11, not #20 so he would want more too - $5.71m was #11's cap space vs #20 $4.07m = $1.64 mil. Ouch. So some work needed as that adds up to $2.019 mil vs space of $576,100 or $1,442,900 shy of what I figure it'd take to make all of those guys happy. I suspect someone isn't getting signed this year (one of those 2 ranked bottom 10 picks at least).

"Also gotta factor in that Trey Yesavage was ranked #11, not #20 so he would want more too"

John, keep in mind players don't sign based on MLB.com rankings. The rankings on all those sites are fun for us as fans to get an understanding of how different websites perceive them, but that's the extent of their usefulness. Many teams know what players are demanding before the draft, which in turn can affect how and where those players get drafted.

Yesavage might want more, but he might not have leverage to get more. Being a junior and going back for a senior year to attempt to move up a few spots is a pretty big risk with a better projected class.

I don't see Yesavage going for more than slot at this point, if it's true that Messina and Smith have signed. Messina likely takes 650-750k to buy him out of his commitment. If they don't go for Messina they go for Terrell. But almost no roads lead to both.

Yup, exactly. They would have already agreed upon Yesavage's bonus before selecting him. I doubt it is any more than his slot, which is already $4 million. If he was asking for over that they likely would have just selected someone else.

The $650-750K goes to Messina. Terrell looks like a pure courtesy pick - he's not signing for that amount, hence the 19th round selection.

My best guess is that it came down to Johnny King or Terrell in the 3rd round. They likely had similar bonus demands.

Oh agreed that the rankings won't dictate everything, but the players have access to the internet as well and will use that as an argument. For many this bonus is the one and only shot they have at millions so they won't give in easily. Their ego will say 'someday I'll make $100+ mil in one contract', but their agent (if the agent has a brain) and family will point out how few make it (just 60% of 20th overall picks have made the majors, just 10 of 60 having good enough careers [10+ WAR] to have had a shot at a mega deal). Even his highest possible ranking (11) had 71% reach, 9 of 60 getting to 10+ WAR. So yeah, he has a far better shot than any of us at becoming a mega millionaire but there is still a 30-40% chance he never reaches and more like a 75% chance he never gets a big free agent contract that'd be bigger than what he gets from the draft. Now that has to be a sobering thought for him.

Teams count on players dreaming big but not having the life experience to know odds are they are part of the 75%, not part of the 25%. I know in my early 20's I was certain I'd be a multi-millionaire by now (yeah, I had a heck of an ego about crap). It is why tax cuts for the rich are not fought tooth and nail by the average person - too many think they'll be that rich too someday (surprise, they won't). I'll guarantee the Jays are selling him on the fast track to the majors and that the quicker he signs the quicker it gets going. That with a strong enough end of 2024 he might be in the majors for 2025 (sell the dream) vs being in college hoping his arm doesn't blow out (the nightmare). Maybe the Jays can get him to sign for slot in the end - as a fan I hope so. For his sake I hope he pushes for more.

Messina sounds like he is signing for sure - a guy sold on the dream I think. D'Marion Terrell seems like a guy you draft hoping you get lucky like the Jays did with Tellez in the 30th round years ago - he got a big bonus thanks to the Jays not being able to sign their top pick that year, same with Jake Brentz in the 11th round, and Patrick Murphy in the 3rd - the 3 biggest bonuses from the Jays that year (2013), none over $900k. It is smart to draft some guys you think you can't sign just in case your top pick decides 'screw it I want more' and you can't accommodate, thus avoiding wasting any savings from other picks.

If a pick doesn't sign, the slot money is lost. To afford to sign a guy in the late rounds, several guys have to go under slot. The slot for Bickford was 2.9M. He signed for slot with the Giants the next year (2.3M) They saved 700K on Clinton Hollon, 150K on Patrick Murphy, 96K on Evan Smith, 134K on Daniel Lietz, 175K on Matt Boyd, 87K on Connor Greene, 293K on Kendall Graveman and Chad Girodo who both signed for 5K. 135K on Garret Custons who signed for 1K.

Got lucky on some of those cheap signings.

They didn't get "lucky" on the cheap signing; those were all planned apart from Hollon (who I think had a medical issue come up, so they did get lucky there). They were actively saving money to go over slot on Bickford, but they were under the impression that Bickford would budge from his obscene demands (his pre-draft price tag was at like $5 million if I remember correctly) and sign for over-slot, but not near that much. This was back when it seemed like they were actively trying to play chicken with HS pitchers with big bonus demands - they lost several of those games.

Once signing Bickford fell through they still had that money saved up (most of which would have gone to over-slot on Bickford) hence they were able to get Tellez and Brentz done.

Hoping that the signed draftees report this week. I think they have a 2 week orientation.

That 2013 draft shows how high payments don't always get the best players - Bickford has 0.2 bWAR so far (taken 2 years later by the Giants and signed for $2,333,800), has been with 4 teams so far - sucked with the Yankees in 5 relief games and has 1 good ML season in his 5 seasons in the majors (every game in relief, just 2 saves). Meanwhile 2 value picks (Kendall Graveman & Matthew Boyd) cracked 9 WAR, as has Jansen (16th round, $100k). Jansen was the Jays 7th biggest bonus that year. The 3 biggest were Tellez, Brentz, and Murphy (net -0.2 bWAR), the next 3 never reached (cost just over $1 mil). Quite the wasted draft given the Jays had a top 10 pick but their 3 best were rounds 6, 8, and 16. Mayza was round 12 for $100k (2.9 bWAR even with this years disaster). FYI: the 2 picks after Bickford flopped too - Dominic Smith ($2.6 mil 0.8 bWAR) and D.J. Peterson (never reached). The best 1st rounder was Aaron Judge by a mile that year (32nd pick - compensation for Yankee loss of Nick Swisher to free agency - ugh). Under AA we had some really bad 1st rounds (2014 picks 9 & 11, flops both, Michael Conforto taken between them, Trea Turner 2 picks later) but better than the Astros (1st overall - DNS, never reached) and Marlins (2nd overall, never reached majors).

Old drafts are quite interesting to look at. The 'what if' is strong. Also great reminders of how much luck in involved in the draft.

Checking the link provided earlier in the thread - Atlanta has gone over by more than 5% barely (by less than $5k) with all but pick #19 signed. Seems odd as AA is smarter than that - going over by so little when the cost is next years first round pick seems very, very unlike him (high price for $5k extra in bonus money). Baltimore is shown with just 3 signed, Boston 0 signed (oh would that be sweet if they failed to sign anyone but obviously won't happen). Yankees without any of their top 6 picks signed, Tampa with just 3 signed. These figures will obviously change a lot in the next few days - deadline to sign is 5 PM August 1st.

I would assume, John, that AA hasn't gone over the 5% limit, and that the answer is probably that the tracker isn't accounting for some "free" $2,500 payments.

Oh agreed. I'd assume the tracker is off, not AA. He and all GMs I'd assume are too smart to do that.

The three games between Spokane and Vancouver this past weekend could decide the season in a lot of ways. Spokane took two of three and now lead the Northwest League.