The Cleveland Indians have signed outfielder Will Benson, giving him a $2.5M signing bonus. Benson, an outfielder from the Atlanta area, was the Tribe’s first-round pick in last week’s 2016 Major League Baseball draft. He was the 14th overall pick.
Benson will be a bit of a project player for the Indians. He’s very athletic with some big tools, especially power, but he’s several years away from impacting the big league club and will need a lot of work at the minor league level honing his skills. He was a top 30-40 prospects according to most experts heading into the draft so he was considered a small reach at 14; however, the thing to remember with the baseball draft is slot money and how that affects picks (the Indians saved almost half a million with Benson versus slot value).