When news broke immediately after last week’s draft that the Cincinnati Reds and 1st round pick Nick Lodolo were initially of the agreement that the talented lefty would receive his full $5.43 million slot bonus when signing, that made a few of us a tad nervous. Not because he’s not worth it, but because that would take a huge chunk out of the team’s overall draft bonus pool, something that would make inking their uber talented 2nd and 3rd round picks - both high schoolers committed to SEC powers - quite the tough task.
Fortunately, the Cincinnati Reds were able to find a way to pull it off, though, as yesterday both 2nd round pick Rece Hinds and 3rd rounder Tyler Callihan put pen to paper to become professionals, bypassing their scholarships to LSU and the University of South Carolina, respectively.