Mark Appel did not sign, Jim Callis reports.
We've already been through this scenario a bunch, and my opinion remains the same. I would have liked him to sign, but I'm not particularly sad that he didn't. The Pirates will now get two first-rounders next year, including the No. 9 overall pick. For Appel, this doesn't make a ton of sense, at least not from a purely financial perspective. Assuming the Pirates were offering him a reasonable amount -- and there's no reason to think they weren't -- it will be difficult for Appel to be able to get more next year. He's taking quite a gamble, and if Boras convinced Appel not to sign, he cost his client expected value.
Now that it's clear the Pirates did not sign Mark Appel, I'll share with you that the only way Scott Boras was going to agree is if the team had gone above and beyond and paid those penalties -- next year's first-rounder, cash, etc. -- to get his client somewhere in the range of $6 million. As you can see, the Pirates didn't do that.
That wasn't ever going to happen, so if Boras knew he wouldn't budge from that, the negotiations were doomed from the start. One would think it would be very hard for Appel to get $6 million next year, but hey, it's his life.
"Our final offer exceeded the available bonus pool money and was essentially up to the last dollar we could offer prior to falling into the second tier penalty which would have resulted in the loss of a first round draft selection. While, as we have shown in past years, we are willing to be aggressive with our financial offer, we simply did not feel it was in the best interest of the organization to forfeit our first round selection in the 2013 amateur draft."
It sounds like the Pirates did all they could without turning into idiots, and Appel wasn't interested. Oh well.
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Also, we already noted that 17th-rounder Hayden Hurst had signed. It turns out he's getting $400,000, so between Hurst and Max Moroff the Pirates ended up spending most of what they could have, given that Appel wasn't going to sign.
There still might be a signing or two that trickles out later, but obviously, without Appel and Walker Buehler, this doesn't look like a very good draft. The Pirates will, however be able to spend a ton next year. That's potentially important, not only because of the pure dollar figure, but because it will give the Pirates a bunch of flexibility in signing later-round picks. The Astros showed that this year when their huge allotment for the first overall pick allowed them to sign Lance McCullers later on. The Pirates' pool next year won't be nearly that big, but the principle is the same.
The Pirates also didn't sign fourth-rounder Brandon Thomas, apparently. I haven't heard anything conclusive about eighth-rounder Kevin Ross.
UPDATE 5:17 p.m.: The Pirates did sign Kevin Ross, who only got $130,000. That small total surprises me, given that he had a commitment to Michigan.
Here's the list of Pirates signees:
1a. Barrett Barnes
2. Wyatt Mathisen
3. Jon Sandfort
5. Adrian Sampson
6. Eric Wood
7. Jake Stallings
8. Kevin Ross
9. D.J. Crumlich
10. Pat Ludwig
11. Chris Diaz
12. Dalton Friend
13. Tom Harlan
16. Max Moroff
17. Hayden Hurst
18. John Kuchno
20. Kyle Haynes
23. Lance Breedlove
24. Tyler Gaffney
25. Josh Smith
26. Jimmy Rider
We could see another signing or two trickle out, but this is probably it. Of these guys, the ones who got six- or seven-figure bonuses are Barnes ($1,000,000), Mathisen ($746,300), Sandfort ($462,900), Sampson ($250,000), Wood ($100,000), Ross ($130,000), Diaz ($100,000), Moroff ($300,000), Hurst ($400,000) and Kuchno ($125,000), so those are the guys you want to watch out for. Also, I'm not sure if we ever found out what Gaffney got, but it might turn out to be a significant amount.
Not that it means anything, but the Pirates didn't sign anyone out of the bottom third of their draft.