Carson Kelly Bypasses Oregon for the Pros
The Oregon Ducks baseball team lost their top-rated recruit this week when Carson Kelly passed over his scholarship offer and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals. Kelly was drafted in the second round of the MLB First-Year player draft last week. Drafted players have until July 13th to sign with their respective teams.
Kelly received a signing bonus of $1.6 million, which is a significant amount because he was due to receive $574,300 on being selected with the 86th pick. MLB has a slotting system set in place with an outline of what the player should receive based on where he is selected. The slotting system was designed to keep salaries in check as teams were going over the amount suggested to sign their picks.
The baseball player’s bonus is over $1 million dollars more than what he should have received, so the team will look to sign some of their other picks for less money than they would normally receive or they could potentially lose a draft pick. For more on the slotting system, The Sporting News has a really good article about it.
Kelly had pitched and played third base in high school but will strictly play the field for the Cardinals. Kelly will begin his career as a professional for the Johnson City Cardinals of the Appalachian League, which is located in Tennessee.
The Ducks lost another of their high school incoming recruits when outfielder Andrew Pullin signed with the Philadelphia Phillies after being drafted. Pullin was the last pick of the fifth round going 188th overall. He might be converted to second base as his professional career gets underway.
In total, seven players from the 2012 recruiting class were chosen in the MLB Draft including the high school kids and junior college transfers. You can see the entire list of Oregon Ducks drafted here, courtesy of CSN Northwest.
Check out Raymond Mencke’s blog at www.sportissue.com. Also follow him on Twitter @RaymondMenckeJr,
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