Bucs close to signing 8th-round Draft pick to seven-figure bonus

According to MLB.com Draft guru, Jonathan Mayo, the Pirates are close to signing LHP Colton Cain, the team’s eighth-round Draft pick, to a $1.1-$1.2 million signing bonus. Cain was one of the high-profile high school pitchers that the Pirates drafted with the intention of luring him away from his college committment with a way-above-slot signing bonus. Cain had made a committment to the University of Texas.

The signing has not been made official yet, but both sides are hopeful that it will be finalized as soon as later on Friday..

Not including Cain, the Pirates have signed 18 of 51 Draft picks.  

This will be the second consecutive year that the Pirates have lured away a top commitment to the University of Texas with a $1 million signing bonus. Last year, the Pirates drafted outfielder Robbie Grossman in the sixth round of the Draft and swayed him away from his scholarship to UT with a $1 million signing bonus plus money equivalent to a college education.

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