Standing on the field at PNC Park in mid-June, general manager Ben Cherington told DK Pittsburgh Sports that they were going to “spend every dollar” they could on this year’s draft class. To not do that would fly in the face of what they were trying to build.
He did just that, down to the penny.
Fourth-round pick Owen Kellington signed Saturday, just ahead of Sunday’s deadline. A source tells DK Pittsburgh Sports that it's for a $600,000 bonus.
With the signing, the Pirates will have spent its entire $14,394,000 bonus pool allotment, plus the 5% overage teams are allowed without losing a first-round draft pick.
Kellington, 18, is a right-handed pitcher from U-32 high school in Montpelier, Vt. He was ranked by Baseball America as the No. 385 prospect in this year's draft class.
While he doesn't have the same upside as the players taken before him -- catcher Henry Davis, left-hander Anthony Solometo, outfielder Lonnie White Jr. and right-hander/shortstop Bubba Chandler all ranked in Baseball America's top 32 draft prospects -- I have gotten reports that he is a projectable player with a high spin curveball that could project as a major league starter.
Taken with the first pick of the fourth round, Kellington is now the earliest Vermont player ever to be drafted.
“The Pirates are getting the best baseball player I’ve seen in Vermont in my life,” Geoff Green, Kellington’s high school coach, told me over the phone recently. “I’ve talked to a few other people, and the thing that they’ve said to me is they haven’t really seen someone like that in Vermont, ever.”
I profiled Kellington earlier this month in In The System.
Per a source, the Pirates will not sign either of their remaining two draft picks -- 12th round lefty Chazz Martinez and 16th round shortstop Daniel Corona -- before Sunday's deadline.
All of the Pirates' draft picks who signed can be found here.
