Dodgers sign Stetson Allie to minor league deal

The Dodgers have signed former Pirates prospect Stetson Allie to a minor league deal, Matt Eddy of Baseball America tweets. As Wilbur noted last week, Allie was eligible for minor league free agency.

The Pirates gave Allie a $2.25 million bonus after he surprisingly fell to them in the 2010 draft. It was an admirable gamble on their part, but it quickly became clear he was unlikely to make good on that bonus. Allie began his career as a triple-digit-throwing righty, joining fellow 2010 draftee Jameson Taillon as one of the Bucs' top pitching prospects as the organization quickly added high-upside talent of the sort it rarely had under Dave Littlefield.

Unlike Taillon, though, Allie exhibited big-time control problems and quickly flamed out, then sort of reemerged as a hard-hitting 1B/OF with a big arm and significant contact issues. Both as a pitcher and as a hitter, the strike zone has been his Achilles heel. He's now 25 and had already settled in as an organizational guy, playing regularly at Altoona in 2016 for the third straight year. He batted a modest .247/.324/.444 and didn't figure to be a part of the Pirates' future despite his obvious ability to hit for power -- he had 16 homers in 2016 and has 78 for his minor league career.