Friday was MLB’s signing deadline for draft picks, but the Cubs had no real excitement, since they’d already agreed on all of their expected/possible deals (unlike the Astros’ nightmare, which we’ll discuss later, because of the implications for other teams).
The one, final bit of news from the day was that, to get tough-ish sign Jordan Minch under contract (35th rounder out of Purdue), the Cubs had to go slightly over the $100,000 allotted for guys after the 10th round – $110,000, according to Chris Webb. If true, the Cubs used basically every dollar they possibly could without incurring a draft pick loss penalty.
Remember the people who said the Cubs went cheap in the draft after, like, two picks?
At the end of everything, the Cubs will have spent their entire $8.35 million bonus pool plus an additional 5% – the maximum they can spend without losing a future first round pick – making them one of just a few teams to exceed its bonus pool by that much, per Baseball America.
Put another way, not only were the Cubs committed to spending as much as possible in the draft, they executed their draft in a way to allow them to do just that and maximize their take of talent. Even if Kyle Schwarber weren’t immediately breaking out, you would have to call this draft a success. Now we wait another three to four years to evaluate whether that holds up. For now, however, these guys look damn good at their jobs.
In total, the Cubs signed 27 of their 40 picks, including their top 22 selections. In addition to Schwarber, the Cubs signed four pitchers to seven-figure bonuses, added a variety of interesting positional guys, and gave themselves a chance with a ton of upside pitchers.