Red Sox sign 2015 draft pick Marc Brakeman before deadline

The Red Sox made what might have been the last of their major draft signings on Friday, agreeing to a $225,000 bonus with 16th-round pick Marc Brakeman. Jim Callis of MLB.com reported the deal first. You might not think a 16th-round pick is worth getting excited about, but Brakeman was picked this late for a few reasons.

The Stanford right-hander dealt with shoulder trouble this spring, and it helped push him down in the draft. Even with that, though, Baseball America ranked him the 141st-best draft prospect available for 2015, and as Callis notes, he looked "very impressive" in the Cape Cod League, with his higher, low-to-mid-90s velocity back. The expectation was that Brakeman might prove too expensive to sign with the available budget the Sox had left to them, but he ended up coming in under that figure, giving Boston some room to spare -- only the dollars over $100,000 for picks from rounds 11 through 40 count against the draft budget, so just $125,000 of Brakeman's bonus is coming out of the $235,000 the Sox had left to play with.

That means 27th rounder Saige Jenco is still on the table for Boston. The Sox can offer him all of the remaining "extra" $110,000 on top of the $100,000 they're allowed to spend for any pick from rounds 11 through 40, but it's also possible that he decides to go back to school instead. Jenco is a college player, but has two years of eligibility left and could make more money later on when he proves the torn labrum he suffered as a freshman isn't even a little bit of a concern.

Regardless, though, the Sox got Brakeman, and while he will almost certainly be a starter early on in his professional career, if he eventually converts to relief thanks to his smaller size, at least he only cost the Sox $225,000 and a 16th-round selection. You could do a whole lot worse in that stage of the draft.