SF Giants sign a trio of 2024 draft picks to underslot deals

The 2024 MLB draft is now in the rearview mirror, but teams have now turned their attention to signing their draft picks. On Wednesday, the SF Giants signed a trio of 2024 picks to underslot deals. This includes Greg Farone (seventh round), Zane Zielinski (ninth round), and Cade Vernon (10th round).

SF Giants sign a trio of 2024 draft picks to underslot deals

Rounds 6 - 10 tend to be an opportunity for teams to create spending flexibility by selecting players earlier than expected. Perhaps, the Giants did that with some of their selections in that range.

Farone agreed to a $204,150 signing bonus with the slot value for that pick being $272,200. On the other hand, Zielinski and Vernon agreed to a $17,500 bonus apiece. The slot value for Zielinski's pick was $194,200, whereas the slot value for Vernon's pick was $182,600. All of the amounts and signings were first reported by Carlos Collazo of Baseball America.

Why would players agree to such a deal? Teams will often overdraft college seniors with the hopes of agreeing to underslot deals. Teams do not have to sign players to their assigned slot values.

For the Giants, they created $409,850 in slot savings in doing these deals. They will likely reallocate that amount to some of their top picks. They drafted James Tibbs III with the 13th overall pick on Sunday. The slot value for that pick is $5.2 million.

If they think that Tibbs III will need more money than that, then they have some extra flexibility from some of these earlier signings. More than likely, they need the extra money to get outfielder Dakota Jordan to sign. Jordan was one of the top names in the draft, but slipped due to signability concerns as a draft-eligible sophomore and questions about how his bat would adjust to pro pitching.

He fell to the Giants in the fourth round. That pick has a slot value of $624,800, but they will likely need well in excess of that amount to land the power-hitting prospect.

The Giants created some spending flexibility by signing Farone, Zielinski, and Vernon. They also can exceed their total bonus pool of 7,566,200 by five percent without losing future draft picks. No team has spent beyond that five-percent threshold. The Giants, by design, have flirted with that amount in the past. This means that they have an additional $378,000 that they can spend on this year's draft class.

They may need all of that money to land not only their top 10 picks, but they drafted some quality players in the later rounds as well. I should mention that the overwhelming majority of players who get drafted in the first 10 rounds end up signing with their team. It is usually an odd and rare occurrence when it does not happen.