Draft Deals Went Down To The Wire

Reds first-round pick Hunter Greene waited to the final seconds to land a record signing bonus.

- John Manuel and Hudson Belinsky

Eight seconds.

That’s all that separated the Reds and Hunter Greene from failing to make a deal at the draft signing dealing.

But the long wait didn’t keep the Reds from signing the No. 2 overall selection, who was the top-rated prospect for the 2017 draft.

And it didn’t stop Greene, the righthander/shortstop from Notre Dame High in Sherman Oaks, Calif., from receiving a $7.23 million bonus. That’s the largest signing bonus that any draft pick has received since the bonus-pool era began in 2012. However, Greene fell short of the all-time draft bonus record of $8 million, set by the Pirates’ Gerrit Cole in 2011, or the record for a high school player, also set in 2011 by Royals farmhand Bubba Starling.