The Twins signed two of their four picks from last week's MLB first year player draft.
Second round pick Alerick Soularie, an outfielder from the University of Tennessee, gets a $900,000 bonus. He was taken with the 59th overall pick. Soularie, ranked as the 175th best prospect in the draft, was the Volunteers' best all-around hitter last season and was hitting .267 with a team-high five home runs this season when games were canceled.
He signed for $285,000 below the assigned value of that pick.
The other signee was fourth round pick Marco Raya, a righthander out of Union South High in Laredo, Texas. He's not very big but has a solid fastball and two breaking balls that could be above average pitches in the majors. Raya signed for $410,000, which is $32,900 under the recommended value of that pick.
The Twins might have drafted players they could save a few thousand dollars on, or they might have needed to draft players under slot recommendations to save money to pay first round pick Aaron Sabato, a first baseman out of North Carolina selected with the 27th overall pick. The value of that pick is $2,570,100, but the Twins now have more than $300,000 saved to sweeten the pot for him, if that is their strategy.
The market is slowly being set -- the 25th overall pick in the draft, pitcher Jared Shuster of Wake Forest, signed with Atlanta on Thursday for $2.2 million.
Sabato has yet to be made available to the media since being drafted.
Fifth round pick Kala'i Rosario, a power hitting outfielder from Waiakea High School in Hilo, Hawaii, also remains unsigned.
