photo: Alec Willis (Karen Stoughton photo)
On Saturday, the St. Louis Cardinals announced the signing of right-handed pitcher Alec Willis who hails from a Colorado high school. The 6-foot-6, 220-pounder was the Cardinals’ seventh-round pick, but the Cardinals had to entice Willis enough to forego his commitment to attend the University of Minnesota.
St. Louis gave Willis a signing bonus of $1,000,000, according to MLB Pipeline. That is over three-quarters of a million more than his pick’s slot value of $211,500.
Now with 19 of their 21 draft picks signed a week before the August 1 deadline, the Cardinals have spent their allocation from MLB, with the exception of $125,000 per remaining pick. However, adding in an optional 5% overage, they still have over $300,000 remaining to spend before incurring draft pick penalties – but not all can go to one player.
Their two remaining picks are 17th round outfielder Elijah Cabell from Florida State and 20th rounder, third baseman Xavier Casserilla. Any signing bonus over $125,000 each would eat into the current buffer of $55,455. So, for example, the maximum non-penalty spend on one would be $180,455, with the other unable to receive more than $125,000.
(Note: In the initial version of this article, Willis’ bonus total was misrepresented as his above slot amount, which affected the math that followed. This mistake has been corrected.)
For more
To track the status of the Cardinals’ 40-man roster as well as all players in the system by position and level, check out the Roster Matrix, always free and updated here at The Cardinal Nation. Also included is every player transaction across the full organization all year long.
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