Reds sign No. 1 pick Greene
Shortstop/pitcher gets $7.23M signing bonus, largest in bonus pool era.
The signing of firstCINCINNATI — round pick Hunter Greene by
the Cincinnati Reds on Friday just before the 5 p.m. deadline was the equivalent of a buzzer-beating shot. There’s no clock in baseball. That’ll have to do as the comparison.
“I was pretty stressed today,” General Manager Dick Williams said. “You never know until you dot the Is and cross the T’s. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say it came down to the final seconds instead of the final minutes.”
As a senior at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif., Greene hit .324 with six home runs. On the mound, he had a 0.75 ERA with 43 strikeouts in 28 innings and a fastball that touched 101 miles per hour. The Reds took
with him the No. 2 overall pick in June.
If the Reds had not signed Greene, he would not have been able to play pro baseball for
another year. His options would have been to go to a junior college or an independent league team with the option of returning to the draft in 2018 or going to UCLA, his college choice, in
which case he would have had to wait three years.
The Reds would have received a No. 3 compensatory pick in the draft next year had they not signed Greene. According to Jim Callis of MLB.com, Greene received a $7.23 million signing bonus, largest in the bonus pool era.
“Anybody who aspires to be a GM should have shadowed me today,” Williams said. “I would have disabused them of that notion. It was
tough just because there’s a lot at stake. What made going through today a little easier was knowing Bob Castellini, Walt Jocketty, my staff, Chris Buckley, we were all on a
united front with where we wanted to go with this negotiation.
“If it didn’t work out, we were at peace with the con-
sequences. That being said, our strong preference was to get this young man signed because we think he is a generational talent, and we really think he’s going to have a pos- itive impact on our team.”
Before this year, the larg- est signing bonus for a player since bonus pools (and stiff penalties for exceeding them) were introduced for the 2012 draft was Kris Bryant’s $6.708
million deal as the No. 2 pick in 2013, Baseball America reported. The largest signing bonus in draft history remains $8 million to 2011 No. 1 overall pick Gerrit Cole, while 2009 No. 1 overall pick Stephen Strasburg retains the record for largest draft contract (guar
anteed more than $15 million on a major league deal).
Entering the draft, Greene was generally seen as the top available talent. ESPN.com’s Keith Law had him atop his board, as did the prospect ana- lyst teams at Baseball America and MLB.com.
While considered a signif- icant prospect at shortstop, scouts rave about him as a pitcher, saying he commands his fastball with a smooth
delivery. Though his secondary pitches are said to need refinement, that’s to be expected for a player who won’t turn 18 until August.
As for when Greene might make his Dayton Dragons debut as he climbs the minor league ladder, if history is any guide, expect to see him at Fifth Third Field next season. But this year is not out of the question. Since the franchise moved to Dayton in 2000, six Reds first-round picks have played for the Dragons the same year they were drafted. Five were college players, a group that includes 2016 No. 2 overall pick Nick Senzel, who tore up the Midwest League last year and is at Double-A now.
The only high school player was pitcher Chris Gruler, a California pitching phenom like Greene. The No. 3 pick in the 2002 draft, the righthander signed immediately and was sent to Dayton after four starts for the Billings Mustangs in rookie ball.
Arm troubles torpedoed his career, limiting him to 25 professional starts. He never made it past Dayton.