Leading up to the MLB Draft, there was speculation that the Pittsburgh Pirates would bypass the top two prospects in favor of someone who would sign a below-slot bonus so they could spread their savings.

That’s a strategy Pirates general manager Ben Cherington employed with the No. 1 overall pick in 2021 to select five top-100 prospects.

This time, he did just the opposite.

After using the No. 1 overall pick to select LSU right-hander Paul Skenes — who could command somewhere close to the $9,721,000 slot value for the No. 1 overall pick — the Pirates drafted a dozen players who were all ranked lower by MLB Pipeline than the spot they were chosen.

With a bonus pool of $16,185,700 — the third-highest in draft history — the Pirates could be positioning themselves to use the savings on the bonuses of their second day selections to pull off a surprise on Tuesday, the third and final day of the MLB Draft.

Baseball America lists nine top-100 prep prospects among its top available players, including three in its top 50: Visalia (Calif.) right-handed pitcher Joey Volchko (No. 37), a Stanford recruit; Chandler (Ariz.) shortstop Roch Cholowsky (No. 42), a UCLA recruit; and IMG Academy left-hander Cameron Johnson (No. 43), an LSU recruit.

The players chosen behind Skenes on the first day were both top-100 prospects picked slightly ahead of projections. Second-rounder Mitchell Jebb of Michigan State was taken 42nd overall (slot value: $2,045,900) and is ranked No. 46 by MLB Pipeline. Competitive Balance B Round pick Zander Mueth of Belleville (Ill.) East High School was taken with the No. 67 pick (slot value: $1,128,200) and is ranked No. 83.

Despite having five picks in the top 104, the Pirates drafted only three top-100 players in the first two days. Their picks in rounds 3-10, including a run of seven consecutive college pitchers, were all ranked significantly lower than their draft spots.

For example, third-rounder Garret Forrester of Oregon State was ranked 116th but picked at No. 73; fourth-rounder Carlson Reed of West Virginia was ranked 196th but picked at No. 104; fifth-rounder Patrick Reilly of Vanderbilt was ranked 219th but picked at No. 140; sixth-round Hunter Furtado of Alabama was ranked 192nd but picked at No. 167; seventh-rounder Jaden Woods of Georgia was ranked 236th but picked at No. 197. Their picks in rounds 8-10 weren’t ranked in the top 250.

The Pirates have precedent of putting together multi-million dollar packages to entice prep prospects to skip college. Neal Huntington took Josh Bell with the 61st pick in 2011 and convinced him to back out of a commitment to Texas by signing him to a $5 million bonus.

Prior to the MLB Draft, both Cherington and Pirates president Travis Williams vowed to spend the entire allotted bonus pool. The Pirates spent 5% above their allotment in 2021, incurring a 75% tax on the overage, as a way to stockpile talent for their farm system.

After signing Louisville catcher Henry Davis to a below-slot bonus of $6.5 million, the Pirates packaged the $1.9 million in savings on the No. 1 overall pick and small bonuses to several second-day selections to persuade four top-100 prospects to bypass college commitments.

They signed second-rounder Anthony Solometo for $2.8 million, Competitive Balance B pick Lonnie White Jr. for $1.5 million, third-rounder Bubba Chandler for $3 million and pulled a surprise by convincing 14th-rounder Braylon Bishop to sign for $268,700, more than double than players picked in rounds 11-20 could command. Both White (Penn State) and Chandler (Clemson) were committed to play college football but chose to play pro baseball.

“We think that draft is going to help the Pirates,” Cherington said. “Twenty years from now, we can look back and we’ll see exactly who the best players were. We think that draft class is going to help the Pirates in the way we hoped that it would. That was not an easy choice, but I remember saying the night of the draft that Henry was the first player on the board – and that’s true. We were able to take him and sign the guys after him. Hopefully, a bunch of those guys help us win games here in Pittsburgh.”

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