Cincinnati Reds sign 1st round pick Cam Collier

The world is Cam Collier’s oyster. The 17 year old bet on himself while graduating high school early, doing that so he could expedite his path to professional baseball by matriculating into Chipola Junior College. That put him up against older competition, but that didn’t phase him in the slightest, and his early work against them had him rightly positioned atop most every draft board on the planet.

That he fell to the Cincinnati Reds at pick #18 in the 2022 MLB Draft was less about his overall talent, and more about his potential signability. He was committed to the University of Louisville if things didn’t pan out for him on the financial side of things, but in almost a perfect inverse scenario, the Reds had much more money in their bonus pool than 18th overall - 7th overall, in fact, due largely to their possession of both a compensation pick for losing Nick Castellanos and their Competitive Balance Round B pick.

As a result, the Reds had the kind of over-slot bonus money to throw Collier’s way, and did just that as the two reached a deal on Monday for an even $5 million, as MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon relayed. That’s a little over $1.3 million more than the slot value for pick #18, but lower than the slot value for many of the positions in the top 5 where mock drafts had him based on his talent and merit.

That means the Reds have inked all of their picks from the first 10 rounds, too. Huzzah!

Welcome to the franchise, Cam. Here’s to socking dingers with a proclivity rarely seen around these, or any parts.