Kevin Ross Signs with Pirates; Remainder of Baseball Recruiting Class Intact

Submitted by Raoul on

The deadline for Major League Baseball draftees to sign is 5 p.m. ET today, and it appears that Michigan signee Kevin Ross will forgo college and sign a last-minute deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who drafted him in the 8th round. This is according to Kendall Rogers of Perfect Game:

The #Pirates expected to sign 8th-rdr and 3B Kevin Ross. #Michigan doesn't expect him to go there … as in at all -- per sources. #mlbdraft

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersPG) July 13, 2012

It looks like the Pirates won't be The Pirates were not able to come to terms with their first-round pick, Mark Appel, and that might have enabled them to offer more money to Ross.


UPDATE: It seems that Ross signed for $130K, which is actually less than his slot amount, so I guess Appel and the Pirates not reaching a deal didn't have any effect on Ross's decision:

The #Pirates signed 8th-round pick, Kevin Ross, for $130K … He was signed with #Michigan, but was not going there in the fall. #mlbdraft

— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersPG) July 13, 2012

The good news for Michigan baseball, according to this annarbor.com article on recent signee Alex Daar, is that the remainder of the incoming recruiting class is intact:

A university spokesperson said no members of the class asked to be released from their letters of intent after the coaching change

Also, Michigan baseball issued this release on Daar yesterday: Michigan Adds Daar to 2012-13 Recruiting Class

coldnjl

July 13th, 2012 at 5:06 PM ^

What does Appel have to gain by not signing a contract...a few more hundered thousand? If he gets injured, he could lose millions. Pittsburg is usually known to pay their drafties well...weird

myrtlebeachmai…

July 14th, 2012 at 9:03 AM ^

The 1 slot (what he'd have been if he wasn't on fence about school, Boras's guy, etc) was slotted for $7 million+.  That's a LOT to gain.  Going back to Stanford is of little risk, at worst he'll still be top 10 guy next year and risks losing nothing as Boras will wring it out of someone.  Even with injury, he'll get it, TJohn surgery is almost a non-issue anymore.

As for teams paying well, those days are ending.  Going over slot $$ now puts you into luxury tax penalties quickly. 

Also, the Pirates will now get a second 1st round pick next year, as well as a top pick in the new "balance draft" this summer.  I.E. get a total of three 1st round picks in next 12 months b/c they couldn't sign him.

I'm not so sure that wasn't the plan all along.  If they failed (I.E. actually signed him), it wouldn't have been such a bad thing either.

SteelBrad

July 13th, 2012 at 5:20 PM ^

I'm a Pirates fan and I was confused by the decision to draft Appel. He fell to them based on reports that he was near 100% sure he was returning to school. Oh well...

UofM626

July 13th, 2012 at 6:34 PM ^

Sometimes teams draft a player on purpose knowing they will return to school, knowing they won't have to fork out $ to that pick and use the money elsewhere.



Example: True Story that just happened, my buddies kid Rio was just drafted in the 4th round by the Astros last month. He was slated to to be a top 10 pick before his blood clot. Astros took him in the 4th round and were hoping to sign him. Rio has a full ride to USC waiting for him If he wants. So his allotted dollars at his slot was 239K or 329K I don't remember. But anyway Houston just gave him $1.85 Million and choose not to sign others.



Interesting how baseball works right

James Burrill Angell

July 13th, 2012 at 5:23 PM ^

So does anybody know anything about the quality of the guys Michigan is keeping? Are these guys All-State caliber guys? Any others drafted? I guess I'm just curious if these are the kind of guys who will bring the team back to being good.

Raoul

July 13th, 2012 at 7:40 PM ^

Ross was the only incoming player drafted. A blog called B1G Baseball posted this item last December:  Michigan and Ohio State land Big Ten’s top classes

For Rich Maloney’s Wolverines, his program received a National Letter of Intent from a group of players that rival Michigan’s class of 2005 arrivals when the likes of Adam Abraham, Jason Christian and Zach Putnam led the school to three consecutive Big Ten titles and NCAA Regional appearances prior to being drafted in 2008.

Of course, this analysis was made when Ross was still part of the class.

Another site, Michigan Baseball Prospects, has the Wolverines signing the top four players from the state of Michigan in the 2012 class, as well as #8.