MLB Draft 2013: Red Sox sign Nick Longhi for $440,000

The Red Sox have plenty of money left to spend on the 2013 MLB draft class, but very little time left to do so, considering July 12 is the deadline for contracts. They tossed a significant chunk of their remaining funds at 30th-round selection Nick Longhi on Thursday, though, adding another talented player to the organization, while keeping the bonus money that might be leftover post-deadline to a more acceptable minimum.

Longhi is an outfielder from Venice high school in Florida, and fell all the way to round 30 due to signability concerns. Baseball America ranked him the #298 prospect in their pre-draft top-500, and gave reason to believe he might be even better than that:

For pro scouts, he's a corner bat prospect as the rare righthanded-hitting, lefthanded-throwing corner outfielder. Longhi has good raw power from the right side, but scouts debate his knack for hitting and ability to catch up to good velocity. He frequently hit in the lower half of a stacked Venice lineup. He's a below-average runner who could be limited to left field or first base down the line in spite of his strong arm. Scouts who believe in Longhi's bat see him as a potential top-five-rounds pick

Whether the Red Sox saw him as having talent that befit the first five rounds is unknown, but his $440,000 bonus is significant, and is $140,000 more than Boston paid their actual fifth-round pick, as well as the fourth-largest bonus they have handed out for this draft class. Any bonus over $100,000 in rounds 11 through 40 counts against the draft budget for the first 10 rounds, meaning the Red Sox just spent an extra $310,000 from the $845,500 they had managed to store away for picks like Longhi. With both Ryan Boldt and Jordan Sheffield choosing their respective college commitments over going pro, though, that number is more than enough for Longhi, and maybe another player or two like him, to sign with Boston before the deadline passes.

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Based on the link and subsequent image of a player posing in a Perfect Game uniform, I'm pretty confident this Twitter profile is Nick Longhi's. Please stare at his bio header image, because he's earned it.

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