Padres and Cole Wilcox Sign Record-Breaking Deal

The San Diego Padres were able to land their final pick from the 2020 MLB Draft by signing starting pitcher Cole  Wilcox on Tuesday.

There was only one thing left to do for the San Diego Padres to wrap up an incredible 2020 MLB Draft, and that was sign their third-round pick Cole Wilcox.

This wasn’t just any third-round pick, the Padres took a chance by selecting Wilcox knowing he would be a tough sign.

The 6-foot-5 righty out of the University of Georgia is someone who easily could have gone in the first round. And many thought if he didn’t go in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft he would go back to Georgia and likely be a top 10 pick next year.

But the Padres took the risk hoping they could get their other draftees under slot, which they did, and the risk paid off.

As you can see in the tweet from Callis, this set an MLB Draft bonus record for a third-round pick.

The slot value for where the Padres picked Wilcox was just $767,800 and they signed him for nearly $3 million more than that.

Recently I wrote about how much money the Padres had left to try and lure Wilcox into signing and said they had a little over $3 million.

I thought that would be plenty to land him, but they ended up having to use the max amount they could before getting hit with a penalty (for going over 5 percent of their total draft pool money).

The Padres have not signed all six of their picks from the MLB Draft and many think this could be one of the best classes from the recent draft.

Only time will tell if that’s true or not, but getting Wilcox had to happen in order for this draft to be considered a huge success and they got it done.

Wilcox was a draft-eligible sophomore, so he’s probably not your typical college arm that will fly through the system. But still, he’s someone that could be up with the Padres in a few seasons and I can’t wait to see how he progresses. There is even a chance we see him added to the 60-man roster in 2020.