Reports surfaced earlier on Saturday morning that the Texas Rangers had signed Nomar Mazara - with a record breaking five million dollar contract. The expensive signing on Mazara helped explain Texas' shy drafting in June's MLB First-Year Player Draft. It seems that the Rangers weren't content with just Mazara, as reports have now surfaced that the Rangers have signed Ronald Guzman out of the Dominican Republic. Guzman, according to SI's Melissa Segura, will receive a three and a half million dollar bonus.
Guzman's bonus isn't as high as Mazara's, despite Baseball America predicting that Guzman would receive the second highest bonus in the international signing frenzy - and that Mazara would have the tenth highest. Both Guzman and Mazara are outfielders, and both are from the Dominican Republic.
Texas has now spent eight and a half million dollars signing Mazara and Guzman - a number that could very well account for the entire amount spent on bonuses in a given draft class. We'll see if the Rangers have any more tricks up their sleeve, but it appears that the reason why Texas was conservative in the draft has been explained - they've been as aggressive as ever for the July 2 signings.