Baseball America's Jim Callis is reporting that the Indians have signed Alex White for a well-above slot $2.25 million signing bonus. More details as they trickle in ... there is a crush of news on a dozen different signings, including Strasburg reportedly signing a four-year major league deal for $16 million, so details on White may be hard to come by for a few more minutes.
Hoynes confirms the signing is for over $2 million, noting that slot for the #15 pick was $1.55 million. Of course, White was expected to go in the top seven or eight picks, and signability may have been an issue.
Indians with the official club tweet.
The Indians have now signed all 20 of their top 20 picks in the 2009 draft.
A few things were lost in various speculations about the Indians lowballing draft picks. First, they do not have a history of low-balling draft picks. They do have a history of passing on guys that they think aren't worth the money, but that is by no means the same thing. They also have a history of making lots of flier picks and often signing them; they don't seem to have done much if any of that this year, but they did a ton of it last year.
Second, the Indians have been very straightforward about how they approach signability. For each potential pick, they make their own internal, independent evaluation of how much of a bonus that amateur prospect is really worth to the club. Next, they talk to each player they think they might pick and get a sense of how much he expects to get. Finally, if a player wants more than the club thinks he's worth ... he drops off the Indians draft board. Simple. So regardless of slot, unless the Indians dramatically misunderstood Alex White's expectations, they were always going to sign him. If they weren't, they wouldn't have drafted him.
Feel free to open-thread the draft signings here.