Yesterday, in item #4 here, I mentioned that Jon Daniels said on the radio last Wednesday that the announcement on the player to be named in the Red Sox Jarrod Saltalamacchia deal would be announced "probably this week or so" and described the player as though he had already been identified. The two prevailing theories on that player are a) that the Rangers were given a list to choose from, since the deal came down right at the deadline, and b) that the player had to be named later because players cannot be traded until one year after their signing date, and the Red Sox signed several 2009 draft picks in mid-August last summer.
I wanted to expound a bit on the latter scenario. The signing deadline last summer was 11:00 p.m. central time on August 17, and Boston announced that they had made ten signings just before the deadline. They were:
David Renfroe, 3B, 3rd round, $1.4 million signing bonus
Madison Younginer, RHP, 7th, $975,000
Kendal Volz, RHP, 9th, $550,000
Brandon Jacobs, OF, 10th, $750,000
Jason Thompson, 2B, 11th, $300,000
Renny Parthemore, RHP, 18th, $150,000
Alex Hassan, RHP, 20th, $90,000
Miles Head, 1B, 26th, $335,000
Eric Curtis, RHP, 28th, (estimated between $50,000-$75,000)
Shaughn Webb, LHP, 31st
Chris McGuinness, by the way, who was one of the two players already named in the deal, was Boston's 13th rounder and received $100,000 after signing sooner after the draft.
Boston reportedly signed Hassan on August 2, which I would think would exclude him from this scenario.
They confirmed the Thompson deal on August 10.
The Jacobs deal was confirmed on August 11.
The Renfroe, Younginer, Curtis and Head deals were confirmed on August 14.
Volz, Parthemore were confirmed on August 17.
Now, as I said above, there was also an official announcement on August 18, the day after the draft, that all of the players had signed, so I don't know that we can be certain that any of them officially signed until just before the deadline on the 17th. But if the announced agreements were signed as they were confirmed, we could hear something between today and Saturday, with next Wednesday really being the last reasonable day for an announcement if this theory is correct.
As you can tell by the signing bonuses, Renfroe, Younginer, Volz and Jacobs have the most upside among the group. Volz is having a nice season, though he's still pitching in Low Class A, a level below where most good college pitching prospects spend their first full season. The other three were high school players, all making their debut in the college level NY-Penn short season league, and all have struggled with the jump past rookie ball.
Thompson and Head, both high school players, also received nice bonuses in line with high round selections. Thompson is struggling in rookie ball, while Head is holding his own nicely on the NYP league squad, Lowell.
Rangers fans would have to be pretty ecstatic with any of the first four picks being added to the deal, as most national experts didn't mind the deal with Roman Mendez as the lead player. Jim Callis of Baseball America ranked Mendez as the 23rd best prospect in a deep Boston organization. He ranked Renfroe at #14, Younginger at #16, and Jacobs at #30.
Finally, as a point of comparison, here were the highest reported signing bonuses for Rangers draftees in the 2009 draft:
Tanner Scheppers - $1.25 million
Tommy Mendonca - $587,700
Chad Bell - $450,000
Robbie Erlin - $425,000
Nick McBride - $325,000
Paul Strong - $300,000
Shawn Blackwell - $300,000
Riley Cooper - $250,000
Andrew Doyle - $234,000
Ruben Sierra Jr. - $125,000
Braxton Lane - $125,000
Braden Tullis - $90,000
In BA's top 30 for the Rangers, Scheppers ranked 4th, Mendonca 18th, and Doyle 29th.