More than one Major League Baseball team expressed interest Monday in drafting Wilson right-hander Luke Holman, but the price wasn’t right for him.
Craig Holman, Luke’s father, said that his son turned down offers of signing bonuses of $800,000 and $700,000 before two teams made their third-round selections. He said his son had been seeking $1 million. He’s signed a letter of intent to enroll next month at Alabama.
“He turned down $700(K) and $800(K) in the third round by direction of his advisor (Jonathan Maurer),” Craig Holman said. “He thought he could get a little bit more. ... Luke and I are sitting here and talking quietly. He’s wondering if he made the right decision. I don’t know if he did.”
Holman said he and his son countered an $800,000 offer from the Chicago Cubs with an offer of $850,000, but the team said no and drafted another player who accepted the slotted amount.
The Cubs had the 93rd pick overall in the third round, which has a slotted value of $627,900. They selected left-handed pitcher Drew Gray of IMG Academy in Florida.
Every pick in the first 10 rounds is assigned a slot value, ranging from $8.4 million for the No. 1 pick to $142,200 for the final pick of the 10th round.
All the recommended slots are combined into a team’s bonus pool, which is what a team can spend on bonuses for picks in the top 10 rounds. Any bonus greater than $125,000 for picks in the final 10 rounds are counted against the bonus pool.
Teams can choose to offer a player the slotted amount of money, more than the slotted amount or less.
So, teams can sign a player with little leverage, like a college senior, at a lower price than the slotted amount and use that money to sign a player with a lot of leverage, like a high school senior who can choose to enroll at a four-year or two-year college.
Most of the players drafted in rounds 5-10 Monday were fourth-year college players. Rounds 11-20 are scheduled for Tuesday.
Craig Holman said several teams called his son after the 10th round and said they would offer him as much as $500,000 if they drafted him Tuesday.
“This is not fun,” Craig Holman said. “It is such a poker game. These kids get stuck in the middle. It’s a learning process. We’re not going to get back to that $800,000, I know that.”
Craig Holman played at Jacksonville State in Alabama and was a 13th-round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 1990. He decided to stay in college for his senior year and was taken in 1991 in the 22nd round by the Philadelphia Phillies, for whom he played eight minor league seasons.
Luke Holman was rated as the 172nd-best prospect available in the draft by MLB.com. He was 7-1 this season with a 0.88 ERA and 113 strikeouts in 55.2 innings and led the Bulldogs to their second straight District 3 Class 6A title and the Berks League final.
Craig Holman said Alabama coach Brad Bohannon called his son several times Monday and told him he could make as much as $2 million after he plays three years for the Crimson Tide.
“Luke has a full ride to go to Alabama,” Holman said. “It’s a great place. It’s in the SEC (Southeastern Conference). I played 10 years of pro ball, and the SEC is like playing in Triple-A. You’re going to get treated like a king.
“Now teams are coming back to us because they don’t mind wasting a pick. 'Can we negotiate overnight and reach a number so we can take you tomorrow?’ I don’t know what he wants to do but we’re talking about it right now. We wanted a million dollars.”
From Reading Eagle.com
