What the Red Sox can still do on draft deadline day

Today, July 17, is the deadline for teams to sign their picks from the 2015 MLB Draft. And, as you might know, the Red Sox have already done the lion's share of their work. All their picks from the first ten rounds are locked in, along with plenty of others from the later rounds.

As it stands, though, they still have a small amount of money to work with. While the Red Sox have already exceeded their bonus pool, committing to $6,299,500 in bonuses in the first ten rounds against a pool of $6,223,800, they can actually offer up an extra 5% of their pool before the penalties become significant.

Here's how it works: after the first ten rounds, all that matters is if a player's signing bonus comes in over $100,000. Anything over that $100,000 mark will then be counted against the team's bonus pool. So far, though, all the players the Sox are reported to have signed in the later rounds have come in at $100,000 or less, meaning they've still got some $235,000 in extra bonus money available to them.

That would mean nothing if they didn't have anyone interesting to spend that money on, but there's still a few names floating around. The two big ones, who could easily have gone in the first four or five rounds of the draft based on talent alone, are Mark Brakeman and Daniel Reyes. Reyes is very unlikely--drafted in the 39th round, he's got many of the raw makings of a good baseball player, but the fact that he was left so late should give you an idea of just how little hope teams had of signing the Florida commit. Most likely, the Red Sox are using the opportunity to try to establish communication more than anything else, with an eye towards picking him again when he re-enters the draft in the future.

Brakeman is more realistic. As a junior out of Stanford with health issues, it's easy to imagine Brakeman wanting to cash in for anywhere from $100,000 to the $350,000 the Red Sox can offer him. He could certainly risk returning to Stanford in an attempt to prove himself healthy and get a better deal next year, but the equivalent of sixth-round money is nothing to sneeze at.

If Brakeman doesn't prove possible--or if he doesn't take the entirety of their remaining pool--the Red Sox might well choose to turn to 26th and 27th round picks Kevin Ginkel and Saige Jenco. Neither one is close to Brakeman or Reyes, exactly, but if they've got nowhere else to spend their money, and either are willing to start a professional career if the Sox overpay, then honestly they may as well overpay, so long as they stay under that extra 5%.