Not much but the headline here. Marti Wolever announced that first round pick Aaron Nola, RHP from LSU, has signed. No word on his signing bonus as compared to slot. I imagine that will be reported sometime in the next couple hours. Also no word on where he will start. I guess Lakewood, but it could be Williamsport or even Clearwater.
Update – Reports indicate Nola signed for the full slot value for the #7 overall pick, $3,300,900. At the press conference announcing the pick, Ruben Amaro said Nola would likely start in Clearwater, but did not rule out the possibility of him starting even higher. Starting even an advanced college starter at AA is very unusual. Just for example, Stephen Strasburg started at AA the spring after he was drafted, and Gerrit Cole started at A+ his follow-up spring as well, while Michael Wacha made it to AA after 7 starts at lower levels the summer he was drafted.
We’ve been told from day one that Nola is supposed to be a fast riser, so an aggressive placement would fit that narrative pretty well, but all the way to AA right after the draft still seems pretty unlikely. Won’t be long until we find out, I suspect. There’s not much holding him back, save the conditioning to pitch every fifth day instead of every seventh, and possibly an innings limit that they’d like to slow play in case there’s playoff baseball in Reading this year and they’d like him to be able to participate.
In all, I’m happy with the pick. I would have preferred an upside arm, and only time will tell if the FO lives to regret drafting a low-ceiling, help-us-soon kind of guy into an organization that appears to need far more help than one man would ever be able to provide.
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