Rumor: Walker Jenkins to sign with the Twins before the 4 pm deadline today

[Dman]

1 minute ago, Jocko87 said:

I feel like something is missing in our understanding of these deals.  I understand the slot system but can't believe something like this is being held up over a couple hundred thousand bucks somewhere.  Its couch cushion money in the grand scheme of things.  Leverage smeverage both ways.  It's tripping over a dollar to pick up a dime, it has to be over other details.  Hopefully we will get some of them when it all comes out.

As others have said it could be the medicals it just seems a bit unlikely as they essentially knew about the hip impingment issue and it doesn't look like it has affected Jenkins in any way.  Maybe there is more there after having the physical?

I agree both ways it doesn't seem like holding this up over a few hundred thousand dollars should make much of a difference since the money is there.  Still Jenkins was projected to go where he went and I have to believe the Twins are offering slot as they are setup to offer that.

Like you said likely more to this than meets the eye and there have been virtually no rumors about this all they way through to today.  It is just that given Boras's history it seems likely something on his end.  I think slot is a fair del and if the Twins aren't offering that then I can see why Boras would be working to get his client to that level.  If he is just looking to add a little more money I think he should just take the deal if offered slot.  It is a good one with life changing money for his client.

[Jocko87]

18 minutes ago, IA Bean Counter said:

its likely in the 300-500k range

Exactly, that's only one couch cushion.

[East Coast Twin]

2 hours ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

Twins in bed with Boras. Not the worst thing in the world.

You probably could have worded that a little differently.  : )

 

[Cap'n Piranha]

30 minutes ago, Jocko87 said:

Exactly, that's only one couch cushion.

For the Twins, yes.  For Walker Jenkins?  No.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, baul0010 said:

Who cares!!!  

I mean, all things being equal, obviously I'd like to sign either of those two players. Teams rarely sign those late round HS bonus grabs, but the ones that do sign, do any of them ever work out? Serious question, I can't think of any, but obviously I don't know the draft background of every MLB player.

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

3 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I mean, all things being equal, obviously I'd like to sign either of those two players. Teams rarely sign those late round HS bonus grabs, but the ones that do sign, do any of them ever work out? Serious question, I can't think of any, but obviously I don't know the draft background of every MLB player.

Whether is HS or otherwise,  Julien is a great example of a late round grab that we threw some money at that worked.  500k for 18th round pick in 2019.  It is worth a shot and increases the probabilities of more players making it to the MLB.  

[nicksaviking]

6 minutes ago, IA Bean Counter said:

Whether is HS or otherwise,  Julien is a great example of a late round grab that we threw some money at that worked.  500k for 18th round pick in 2019.  It is worth a shot and increases the probabilities of more players making it to the MLB.  

The Twins rarely miss the JUCO or college Juniors and all of those guys have already signed this year. It's the HS kids drafted late that's always a different animal.

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

10 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

The Twins rarely miss the JUCO or college Juniors and all of those guys have already signed this year. It's the HS kids drafted late that's always a different animal.

Julien said he was going to back to school until they made the last minute deal.  What you are really looking at is top 200 prospects or value that you can steal or pay 3rd to 4th round money to have them sign.  

https://www.cbs42.com/sports/auburn/julien-owen-to-return-to-auburn-baseball-for-2020-season/

[nicksaviking]

2 minutes ago, IA Bean Counter said:

Julien said he was going to back to school until they made the last minute deal.  What you are really looking at is top 200 prospects or value that you can steal or pay 3rd to 4th round money to have them sign.  

No, I'm specifically wondering about the HS kids. The Twins almost always get the tougher-sign college juniors to sign; I'd guess most clubs do. The HS kids are obviously further away from the majors and I'm curious how many that have signed at these super late picks have actually panned out. Not the kids signed in rounds 11-12, those are the guys who are perceived to have a somewhat reasonable chance to sign, I mean the super late rounders. My assumption is the number is miniscule, which is why I wouldn't sweat it, but I really don't know, which is why I was asking.

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

15 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

No, I'm specifically wondering about the HS kids. The Twins almost always get the tougher-sign college juniors to sign; I'd guess most clubs do. The HS kids are obviously further away from the majors and I'm curious how many that have signed at these super late picks have actually panned out. Not the kids signed in rounds 11-12, those are the guys who are perceived to have a somewhat reasonable chance to sign, I mean the super late rounders. My assumption is the number is miniscule, which is why I wouldn't sweat it, but I really don't know, which is why I was asking.

Well we got 1 last year in Omari Daniel that we got for a shade under 300k.  Would be similar in talent.  The organizations would have to have the money to throw at these players that would entice them.  Again I think 300-500k for 19th pick,  I think our 20th pick would want even more than that.  As to whether they have hit, I am sure a few have, just don't have them.   

[FlyingFinn]

14 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

The HS kids are obviously further away from the majors and I'm curious how many that have signed at these super late picks have actually panned out.

If you just want one name, John Smoltz in Round 22. 

[Dman]

13 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

No, I'm specifically wondering about the HS kids. The Twins almost always get the tougher-sign college juniors to sign; I'd guess most clubs do. The HS kids are obviously further away from the majors and I'm curious how many that have signed at these super late picks have actually panned out. Not the kids signed in rounds 11-12, those are the guys who are perceived to have a somewhat reasonable chance to sign, I mean the super late rounders. My assumption is the number is miniscule, which is why I wouldn't sweat it, but I really don't know, which is why I was asking.

Yeah I agree with you.  I am not aware of any of those late picked high schoolers turning into anything but there must be a few that have.  Still it must be small because it isn't a strategy a lot of team use IMO.  When the draft 30 or 40 rounds the Twins always took several high schoolers late and none of them signed.  

It fun to hold out hope but it doesn't happen often and works out even less as I would think there would be more stuff out there about those types of picks and I don't remember seeing anything at all on one of those working out.

[Mike Sixel]

And, it's done, just barely over slot....no idea what happened with the delay...

[nicksaviking]

3 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

If you just want one name, John Smoltz in Round 22. 

Yeah, that's what I was asking about. I mean, I'd probably want to see more recent guys, but yeah I'd take a John Smoltz obviously.

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Buerhle,  38th round out of high schoool, Pujols 13th round,  graduated early played 1/2 season of juco ball.  Michael Brantley 7th round.  Jose Bautista 20th round Edwin Encarnacion 9th round, Rizzo 6th round . . 

 

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

4 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

And, it's done, just barely over slot....no idea what happened with the delay...

Means it was on the agent and not the Twins . . . most likely Boras trying to squeeze out a few more dollars.  

[DocBauer]

So rumor has it Boras has been sort of "touring" different cities to be there for signings and press conferences. I doubt the Twins are squeezing Jenkins/Boras as that hasn't been their nature. And they have a good relationship with Boras.

I think it's just timing and Boras trying to squeeze a couple hundred thousand more if he can. Not something that's going to prevent the deal from getting done.

I hadn't realized the draft and follow policy had been put back in to place again, for JC kids, until I read about it after the draft. But I'm confused on how that works financially for 19th round pick Parker. It's my understanding he could only be signed for a max of $150,000, or any higher amount must be counted against the initial bonus pool total. Is it possible the Twins were trying to stash a little $ for a future signing?

Anything spent over the pool allotment is taxed at 75% per dollar if I understand correctly.

20th pick Larson was a draft and prayer pick, IMO. Second year in a row they took a shot on a top HS recruit at the end of the draft. I guess you never know what might happen. But I'm sure Larson is going to LSU. 

 

 

[nicksaviking]

2 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

And, it's done, just barely over slot....no idea what happened with the delay...

So now they toss the rest of the money in a bag on the floor and tell the two HS kids who ever gets it first keeps it all?

[FlyingFinn]

2 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, that's what I was asking about. I mean, I'd probably want to see more recent guys, but yeah I'd take a John Smoltz obviously.

Josh Hader in Round 19. Hard to find more recent all-stars as they are still working their way through the systems or just started in the majors. It's rare though. Proves that having 62 round drafts in the past was a really dumb idea.

I like the picks just because if something happens with your top 5 picks between the draft and signing, you can all of a sudden offer these high schools, who would have been taken in the 2nd or 3rd round, enough money to sign.

[nicksaviking]

2 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

Josh Hader in Round 19. Hard to find more recent all-stars as they are still working their way through the systems or just started in the majors. It's rare though. Proves that having 62 round drafts in the past was a really dumb idea.

I like the picks just because if something happens with your top 5 picks between the draft and signing, you can all of a sudden offer these high schools, who would have been taken in the 2nd or 3rd round, enough money to sign.

Between Hader, Bautista and Beurhle, it's definitely worth the effort. Not at the expense of not signing a top drafted player, but certainly do it if you can.

[2wins87]

Funny that he got that exactly that extra $4500 they had saved up.

I'm sure that wasn't actually the hold-up, but they are now exactly at slot.

 

[Mike Sixel]

11 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

Funny that he got that exactly that extra $4500 they had saved up.

I'm sure that wasn't actually the hold-up, but they are now exactly at slot.

 

Meaning they don't throw the extra they could spend w/o losing a pick at a HS player, I'd bet. They are one of two teams never to go over their number. Ever.

[stringer bell]

Signed! Source: mlbtraderumors.com

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/07/twins-sign-first-rounder-walker-jenkins.html

[2wins87]

They could still go over slot to sign one of the HS kids at the end of the draft, but I don't think they will.

It looks like the 19th rounder Sam Parker could be a draft-and-follow selection, so they could still potentially sign him for up to $225,000 before next July if he attends a full year at his college.

I am only vaguely familiar with the rules so I was just reading up, and if he goes to JuCo and qualifies as a draft-and-follow, other teams will not be allowed to contact him before July 2 of next year, which is only a week or so before the draft.  I wonder how strict that is, are other teams' scouts not allowed to even talk to him?

Presumably if he absolutely rakes in JuCo he would be incentivized not to sign and enter the draft.  Seems like he would have to find some happy medium where the Twins still want to sign him but he knows he wouldn't get significantly more interest from other teams.

[Nine of twelve]

41 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

And, it's done, just barely over slot....no idea what happened with the delay...

Here's the Strib piece on the signing.

https://www.startribune.com/twins-walker-jenkins-first-round-pick-mlb-draft-signs-contract/600292276/

[DJL44]

Scott Boras just got an entire free day's press for his draft pick.

[2wins87]

4 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Meaning they don't throw the extra they could spend w/o losing a pick at a HS player, I'd bet. They are one of two teams never to go over their number. Ever.

No, I don't think so either.

It's possible the handshake deal with Walker pre-draft was actually under-slot and that was part of the hold-up, as they wanted to make a run at the 20th pick or something prior to this week.  It doesn't seem like Jenkins was likely to go much higher so it wouldn't make sense that he could really be demanding way over slot.

More likely though, they had already agreed to basically slot and it was something much more mundane.  Maybe details emerge but probably we'll never really know.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Boom!

[nicksaviking]

****Moderator Note****

Let's stay on topic and keep the posts from getting personal.

[roger]

Interesting, they were $4,500 under their allotment and he signed for $4,500 over slot.  So the Twins spent every dollar, and Boras can say I got the kid more than slot.  Unfortunately, they weren't able to get extra dollars to sign either of the last two high school players.  But they did sign the two high school kids taken in what was it, the third and fifth rounds...both to over slot and one way over.