Toronto Blue Jays reach agreement with pair of draft picks

The Toronto Blue Jays organization officially announced they have reached agreements with CJ Van Eyk and Trent Palmer.

Both players surprisingly signed for slightly above slot value deals according to a pair of industry sources. The Blue Jays now just have Austin Martin and Nick Frasso remaining from their five draft picks to ink to a deal.

According to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet, second-round selection CJ Van Eyk agreed to a $1.8 million dollar deal just above the recommended slot value of $1.77 million. Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline reported that Trent Palmer signed for $850,000 just above the recommended value of $805,600.

The Blue Jays signed their fifth-round pick Zach Britton earlier in the week to an under slot deal of more than $300,000. The young outfielder was projected by Baseball America not to be selected in the top five rounds of the draft which afforded the brain trust some bargaining leverage.

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The Jays have $6,969,000 remaining from their allotted $9,716,500 to sign both Martin and Frasso. It was speculated that Martin would be seeking second overall pick value which would be $7,789,900. The recommended slot value for the fifth overall selection is 6,180,700.

It will be interesting to see if there will be anything for Palmer once the Blue Jays come to terms with Martin. You have to assume the brain trust is prepared to match his asking price if they were willing to throw their fifth overall selection at him.

Martin is tabbed as a generational talent and could immediately slide into the top spot as the organizations most heralded prospect ahead of Nate Pearson.

The Jays have failed to land anymore college free agents after signing a trio on the first day they became officially available. Harrison Ray, Mackenzie Mueller, and Zac Cook all inked deals with the Blue Jays as college free agents. No terms of their respective deals have been released, however, under the new rules teams cannot offer more than $20,000 for their services.