Now that Alex Lange is done with the College World Series, he can focus his attention towards signing with the Chicago Cubs as the highest-profile not-so-officially-signed draftee from the MLB Draft earlier in June. From before:
Wes Saver (@Savermetrics) has done us Cubs fans a great favor in setting up a team-specific tracker for the past few drafts. The signing deadline is July 7th, at 5 PM Eastern which is just before my softball game, so we will find out for sure how many do sign, but for now we have a ready resource to keep us happy until then.
We now have exactly a week and some hours before the official signing deadline, and at latest tally, the Cubs have or are likely to sign all of their picks from the first ten rounds. There’s an interesting wrinkle with Jeremiah Estrada, who apparently had a tweet earlier that has since been deleted indicating that he is going to sign, but the Cubs seem confident that it would get done as of a couple weeks ago. And as far as I can tell, the Cubs have never punted one of their draft slots. So if all goes to plan, the Cubs will have kept all their allotted pool money (plus the 5% leeway). The current tally, per Wes:
- 28 either signed or likely to sign. There are a couple who are already heading to camp in Arizona:
Confirming Ramsey Romano is signed and in Mesa. https://t.co/NBgr40a3uK
— Wes Saver (@Savermetrics) June 29, 2017
#Cubs draftees 2B Cam Balego and SS Austin Upshaw have been added to the AZL Cubs roster.
— Wes Saver (@Savermetrics) June 29, 2017
Austin Upshaw becomes the first 2017 Cubs Draft pick to debut. He struck out but reached first on an error, and scored on a 3B by Sierra.
— Todd ⚾️ (@CubsCentral08) June 29, 2017
- 7 have indicated they are not going to sign, and will go to or keep playing at the college level.
- We’re still waiting on more information from 6 of the draftees, all of whom are after the slot rounds, so no huge loss there money-wise if they elect not to sign.
The Cubs tend to announce these in droves, so expect to see another one like this after the Fourth of July…
The #Cubs have signed LHP Brendon Little, the club’s top pick with the 27th overall selection in the #MLBDraft. pic.twitter.com/HdzgqZEUT3
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 22, 2017
I do think it’s interesting how the team allocated their money so far, and as the last pick in each round, simply took the best available talent at slot until they got to the 9th and 10th round to grab some savings. It will be informative, of course, to see how the money past the top ten rounds was allocated once all the figures are released.
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