photo: LJ Jones IV (Long Beach State University)
The second of seven 2020 St. Louis Cardinals draftees to be signed, fifth-round outfielder L.J. Jones, has come to terms with the team on his first professional contract.
This comes on the heels of Monday’s announcement of the signing of outfielder Alec Burleson.
We have agreed to terms with LJ Jones.
Welcome (officially) to the #STLCards organization, LJ! https://t.co/IExTRNyWW9
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) June 16, 2020
Jones, 20, endured an injury-plagued career at Long Beach State University, but offers the Cardinals power potential, a commodity the system has been lacking in recent years. The right-handed hitter will likely require more minor league seasoning than Burleson, however.
To read The Cardinal Nation’s full scouting report on Jones, including video, refer to the following article.
The pool amount for Jones’ fifth-round spot is $350,300. Though the Cardinals do not disclose signing bonuses, I would not be surprised if Jones received less than slot value, with the team redeploying that spending on the remaining five unsigned selections.
Update
Later Tuesday evening, Jones’ signing terms were disclosed.
5th-rd @MLBDraft pick LJ Jones signs w/@Cardinals for $100K (Pick 152 value= $350,300). @LBDirtbags OFer is athletic with raw pop in a Greg Vaughn kind of way. #MLBDraft
— Jonathan Mayo (@JonathanMayo) June 17, 2020
As I expected, Jones was a money-saving pick for the Cardinals. Between Burleson and Jones, the organization has banked around $450,000 they can use on some combination of the remaining five unsigned draft picks. To that can be added another $400,000 if the Cards decide to overspend their total allotment by five percent.
This year’s signing deadline is August 1.
Other news
Also on Tuesday afternoon, the organization formally announced the addition of eight non-drafted free agents, whose signing had been previously disclosed.
We have agreed to terms with the following non-drafted free agents: pic.twitter.com/gIXgemOPck
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) June 16, 2020
Details about all eight free agents signed by St. Louis this week can be found in these two articles.
As is the case for all of the other draftees and free agent signings, the chances of them playing their first official baseball games in 2020 as professionals seem murky at best.
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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