The Twins signed two of their four picks from last week's MLB first year player draft.
Twins sign draft choices Alerick Soularie and Marco Raya
They were the second and fourth round choices in last week's MLB first year player draft.
June 19, 2020 at 1:36AM
Second round pick Alerick Soularie, an outfielder from the University of Tennessee, gets a $900,000 bonus. He was taken with the 59th overall pick. Soularie, ranked as the 175th best prospect in the draft, was the Volunteers' best all-around hitter last season and was hitting .267 with a team-high five home runs this season when games were canceled.
He signed for $285,000 below the assigned value of that pick.
The other signee was fourth round pick Marco Raya, a righthander out of Union South High in Laredo, Texas. He's not very big but has a solid fastball and two breaking balls that could be above average pitches in the majors. Raya signed for $410,000, which is $32,900 under the recommended value of that pick.
The Twins might have drafted players they could save a few thousand dollars on, or they might have needed to draft players under slot recommendations to save money to pay first round pick Aaron Sabato, a first baseman out of North Carolina selected with the 27th overall pick. The value of that pick is $2,570,100, but the Twins now have more than $300,000 saved to sweeten the pot for him, if that is their strategy.
The market is slowly being set -- the 25th overall pick in the draft, pitcher Jared Shuster of Wake Forest, signed with Atlanta on Thursday for $2.2 million.
Sabato has yet to be made available to the media since being drafted.
Fifth round pick Kala'i Rosario, a power hitting outfielder from Waiakea High School in Hilo, Hawaii, also remains unsigned.
Soularie photo courtesy University of Tennessee
After an incredible 25-year career that saw him become MLB's all-time stolen bases leader and the greatest leadoff hitter ever, Rickey Henderson died Friday at age 65.
