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Draft and international bonus pools; no extension talks with Cervelli

By Bill Brink 8 years ago

BRADENTON, Fla. — The amateur draft and international signing bonus pools are out, published by Baseball America. The Pirates have $6,945,400 to spend on signing players selected in the first 10 rounds of the draft and on the portion of any bonuses given to players selected in the 11th round or later that exceeds $100,000. Their international bonus pool is $2,044,800. 

The Phillies had the worst record in 2015, but the Reds have the largest draft pool, at $13,923,700, because they won the first pick in the competitive balance lottery. This is another reason teams are reluctant to sign players with qualifying offers attached to them: They don’t want to miss out on acquiring top-end amateur talent, but they also don’t want to surrender the singing bonus pool money attached to high picks.

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The Pirates have not discussed a contract extension this offseason with Francisco Cervelli, Cervelli said Wednesday

“I haven’t talked to the Pirates since the playoff last year,” he said. “I haven’t talked to anybody about anything. I’m concentrating in my work, concentrating on what I can control.”

The Pirates sometimes explore multi-year contracts with players who are entering their final year of team control, like Cervelli, who will be a free agent after the 2016 season. That can result in an extension (Chris Stewart), a trade (Neil Walker) or the status quo, as it did with players integral to 2016 like Cervelli and Mark Melancon. Cervelli and the Pirates avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $3.5 million contract.

“We haven’t talked to the Pirates,” Cervelli said. “My agent, or me, nothing.”