The Chicago Cubs’ commitment to spending money on the amateur side of the game continues to impress. After a number of solid international signings, the Cubs are reportedly opening up the checkbook to sign a number of high end draft picks who slipped in the draft due to signability concerns, including top prep players Shawon Dunston, Jr., Dillon Maples, and Dan Vogelbach (the latter two of whom were recently named All-Americans by Baseball America).
And another top high school, overslot, hard-to-sign player may soon be coming into the Cubs’ fold.
In addition to the stellar crew we talked about earlier this week, 39th round pitcher Ricky Jacquez has been tweeting (assuming that’s actually his account, which isn’t always the case) a variety of things that suggest he really wants to sign with the Cubs.
Jacquez is an interesting case – a UT signee, he was expected to command a huge signing bonus to forego that college commitment, but had recently dealt with some injury issues. The Cubs reportedly wanted to watch him on the Summer circuit before deciding whether to shell out top dollar for him. He’s now finished with Summer ball, so a decision should be coming soon.
Literally no one believed the Cubs would be able to sign all of Dan Vogelbach, Trevor Gretzky, Shawon Dunston, Jr., Dillon Maples, and Ricky Jacquez (in addition to the guys who’ve already signed, and top pick Javier Baez, whom everyone still assumes will sign). In fact, I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone around draft time who believed the Cubs could sign more than two of those five. And now, they’re on the verge of signing all five. I can barely wrap my head around it, if you’d like to know the truth.
Adding to my head-spinning, reader JulioZuleta (almost certainly *the* Julio Zuleta) points out that the Cubs may have already reached an agreement with yet another star prep pitcher. Michael Jensen was signed on to attend USC in the Fall, but is reportedly instead signing on with the Cubs.