Tigers Surprisingly Have Already Signed 1st-Round Pick Riley Greene
By Parker White
On Monday, the Detroit Tigers used the fifth-overall pick and selected high school outfielder Riley Greene.
On Wednesday, less than 48 hours after drafting him, the Tigers announced that they've already signed Greene to a rookie deal.
The @tigers just announced on the #mlbdraft call that they've already signed their first-round pick, Riley Greene.
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) June 5, 2019
According to MLB.com's Jim Callis, Greene agreed to the full slot value for the fifth overall pick, which is just under $6.2 million.
The @tigers announced signing of 1st-rder Riley Greene on the @MLBDraft conference call. Full slot = $6,180,700.
— Jim Callis (@jimcallisMLB) June 5, 2019
That's seems pretty quick, right? I mean, the draft is still going on. As we know, teams can't talk to players about a contract before the draft, because that would be improper and illegal. I guess you can chalk it up as the two sides working really hard to get this thing done as soon as possible.
that would be illegal, of course
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) June 5, 2019
Anyways, the Florida high school outfielder will be introduced to the media at Comerica Park on Friday to make it official. Greene projects as one of the best hitters in this draft class, and with plenty of top arms already among their best prospects, Detroit's farm system is looking better by the day.