{"id":14225,"date":"2017-07-06T11:44:46","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T15:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14225"},"modified":"2017-07-06T11:45:18","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T15:45:18","slug":"will-the-nats-get-romero-signed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=14225","title":{"rendered":"Will the Nats get Romero signed?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sure<\/a>

Sure would like to see him signed so I can get an updated pic… Photo via UHcougars.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Signing deadline is tomorrow, Friday 7\/7\/17 at 5pm.<\/p>\n

A surprisingly large number of top 10 round picks remain unsigned, including our own 1st rounder\u00a0Seth Romero<\/strong>. \u00a0Mlbpipeline reports<\/a> that as of this writing 6 first rounders and 19 guys in the top 10 rounds have yet to sign.<\/p>\n

To put this into context, given the new bonus\/slotting rules it is extremely rare to have a top-10 round pick not sign. \u00a0Last year there were just two guys out of the 300+ guys picked in the top 10 rounds who did not sign. \u00a0We know for sure that at least one 1st rounder won’t sign: Tampa announced<\/a> they will not be reaching an agreement with their 1st rounder\u00a0Drew Rasmussen<\/strong>, a RS-sophomore from Oregon State. \u00a0Interestingly there’s confusion as to whether Tampa gets a comp pick or if Rasmussen becomes a FA. \u00a0I’m not sure where this is coming from; is it because Tampa has announced they’re refusing to even offer him a contract? \u00a0I’ve never heard of the “opting to become a FA” out of the draft; I thought he just goes back to school and re-enters next year (or goes to indy ball, where he’d still be draft-eligible next year). \u00a0 Anyway; point is, if there’s more than 2-3 picks that don’t sign, it’d be a shock.<\/p>\n

Which is why Romero in particular seems like an odd case to still have not signed. \u00a0He has little leverage; he has no college team to return to. \u00a0The other 1st rounders all remain unsigned due to signability issues; for example Ashburn\/UNC’s\u00a0J.B. Bukauskas<\/strong> fell 10 slots from his projection thanks to his last two starts being sub-par (attributed to a blister); he’s probably holding out for a bonus figure closer to #6 overall versus where he got signed. \u00a0Is this just a case of his agent\u00a0Scott Boras<\/strong> trying to make sure he’s in the headlines? \u00a0Are they really struggling to come up with a bonus figure at this point? \u00a0The Nats and Romero were linked together for many days prior to the draft; its not like a case where they had a surprise player “fall” to them and they didn’t have time to pre-negotiate a bonus figure before picking him.<\/p>\n

(coincidentally; the MLBpipeline report still lists\u00a0Cole Freeman<\/strong> as un-signed; in reality they announced his signing and underslot bonus figure within a couple hours of LSU losing the CWS final).<\/p>\n

Odds are that Romero signs, but the delay is curious. \u00a0He needs innings so the delay shouldn’t be about holding down his IP limit. \u00a0He’s been without a team and without proper training for months, so he stands to stay in XST for a number of weeks, putting him basically at the tail end of the minor league season. \u00a0So 2017 is looking like a wash for the most important pick of the draft.<\/p>\n

Romero signing prediction: he signs, for a bit more than slot, which costs the nats any remaining chance to sign\u00a0Bryce Montes de Oca<\/strong>. \u00a0But that doesn’t seem like a huge surprise. \u00a0It still puts the Nats \u00a0in a position where they likely sign 34 of t heir 40 picks, a huge number. \u00a0They won’t sign Montes de Oca, nor Dusty’s son\u00a0Darren Baker<\/strong> (tangent; I agree with prior comments; if that was a legacy signing for show, why so early?). \u00a0They also won’t get UVA’s\u00a0Bennett Sousa<\/strong> who will return to improve his draft stock for his senior year, and they miss out on the three late round HS picks (two of which were also legacy picks).<\/p>\n

top 10 signing misses: i’ll guess we’ll see a few more non-signings out of the top 10 rounds, beating last year’s record low of just 2 non-signings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Signing deadline is tomorrow, Friday 7\/7\/17 at 5pm. A surprisingly large number of top 10 round picks remain unsigned, including our own 1st rounder\u00a0Seth Romero. \u00a0Mlbpipeline reports that as of this writing 6 first rounders and 19 guys in the top 10 rounds have yet to sign. To put this into context, given the new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2572,3629,3605,3639,3601,3451,180,3565],"class_list":["post-14225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-draft","tag-bennett-sousa","tag-bryce-montes-de-oca","tag-cole-freeman","tag-darren-baker","tag-drew-rasmussen","tag-jb-bukauskas","tag-scott-boras","tag-seth-romero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14225"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14229,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14225\/revisions\/14229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}