Chicago Cubs Sign 24 Draft Picks

Friday was the deadline for 2016 First-Year Player Draft picks to agree to terms, and the Cubs announced that they agreed came to terms with 24 of their 38 draft picks, including all of their first nine picks.

The Cubs draft is as follows. Players who signed are in bold.

The big name here, such as it is, is third-round pick Tom Hatch, who had a nice run in the College World Series for Oklahoma State. Hatch reportedly signed for $573,900, which is exactly slot value.

Fourth-round pick Tyson Miller reportedly received $500,000, which is somewhat above the slot value of $429,700. Fifth-round pick Bailey Clark apparently received $450,000, which is quite a bit above the allocated slot value of $321,800.

The Cubs saved quite a bit of money on seventh-round pick Michael Cruz and ninth-round pick Duncan Robinson, which allowed them to splurge $275,000 on Michigan State reliever Dakota Mekkes, who led the NCAA in strikeouts per nine innings last season, despite a fastball that only reaches the low-90s. If the "stats vs. scouts" debate were ongoing, he’d have been a great test case.

The Cubs also went over slot with a $180,000 on 11th round pick Michael Rucker. All picks after the tenth have a bonus cap of $100,000 and anything above that comes out of the team’s bonus pool.

Fifteenth-round pick Jed Carter, 23rd round pick Delvin Zinn (whom the Cubs drafted last season and failed to sign) and 33rd round pick Nathan Sweeney also reportedly got $100,000 each.

The big misses here are 12th round pick Trey Cobb, who was an important piece out of the bullpen for Hatch’s Oklahoma State Cowboys, and 14th round pick Parker Dunshee, who was the Friday-night ace for the ACC’s Wake Forest. On a personal note, the Cubs missed out on Montana Parsons, whose name I would no doubt have had a lot of fun with in the Minor League Wrap. The Cubs have been missing minor leaguers with cowboy names since Rebel Ridling and Jericho Jones. Parsons heads to Baylor, which somehow seems appropriate.

As always, we welcome these 24 young men to the Cubs family. Congratulations to all of them and may they all find success on the baseball diamond.