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The San Francisco Giants selected seven players in the 2020 MLB Draft, and only one of those seven figured to be at all difficult to sign: left-handed pitcher Kyle Harrison. But the Giants have signed him.
Originally reported by Mark Delucchi and later confirmed by Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Giants agreed to a $2.5 signing bonus with Harrison, the only prep talent they selected.
That bonus is significantly over slot for where the Giants took the De La Salle pitcher. Harrison was selected in the third round, 85th overall — a spot that comes with a recommended slot of $710,700. But Harrison was projected to be a late-first to mid-second round pick, and had a commitment from a strong baseball program (UCLA) waiting for him if he didn’t sign. So the Giants knew this was coming, and presumably were confident in their ability to make it work when they drafted the young lefty.
To account for going significantly over slot with Harrison, the Giants will have to go under slot in some other places. One clear place to do so should be with middle infielder Jimmy Glowenke, who was selected 68th overall, with the team’s second compensation round pick. That pick carries a recommended slot of $953,100, but since Glowenke barely cracked the top 200 on both Fangraphs and MLB’s big boards, they should be able to go significantly under slot.
They’ll likely also have to go a bit under slot with their first round pick, North Carolina State catcher Patrick Bailey. The 13th overall pick they used on Bailey comes with a recommended slot of roughly $4.2 million, so there’s a lot of money that could potentially be siphoned off for Harrison. With Bailey being a college player, and with the 2021 college baseball season not being guaranteed, the Giants have a little bit of leverage there.
Going so far over slot for Harrison certainly suggests that the Giants are high on his talent, and it’s something that will be tied to his reputation going forward.
So with that said, let’s run some highlights and get excited.