Phillies Sign Mark Laird, Joshua Tobias, and Nick Fanti

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Yesterday Jim Callis reported that the Phillies had signed LSU junior outfielder Mark Laird for slot money in the 9th round.  In addition to Laird, it appears the Phillies have also signed Florida infielder Joshua Tobias.  No bonus figures are known on Tobias.  Both Laird and Tobias were assigned to short season Williamsport where they will join an undefeated Crosscutters team.  Tobias is currently listed as a second baseman and Laird as a center fielder, both positions are very crowded.

Before signing Tobias and Laird the Phillies had just under $100,000 to go over slot later without incurring penalties (there is another $350,000 taxable they could go over slot with).  We still don’t know if they saved any money with Tobias so that number could be higher.  However, tt seemed that they were waiting on officially signing the pair before pursuing any overslot signings later.  Earlier this week 29th round pick HS OF Von Watson said that he would be going to college.  Today we go this:

https://twitter.com/fanti_nick/status/614902363833434112

Nick Fanti was the Phillies 31st round pick out of Hauppauge HS (NY), he is a 6’2″ left handed pitcher with some amount of projection left.  This season he was in the mid 80s with life (though some sources have him 88-89 in May), writeups say he throws a curveball and changeup with the curve showing more potential.  He threw back to back no hitters this spring.  On the season he had a 0.67 ERA over 52 innings with 14 hits, 19 walks, and 87 strikeouts.

I love signing projectable left handed arms, the velocity needed is not that large to be a decent prospect and there just aren’t that many of them.  Fanti has the added bonus of being a low mileage arm from the Northeast so there is a chance a bit more untapped upside.  His signing bonus is unknown.

EDIT:  MLB.com is reporting that Tobias’ bonus was $10,000, $141,600 underslot.

2 thoughts on “Phillies Sign Mark Laird, Joshua Tobias, and Nick Fanti”

  1. Good surprise that Fanti signed. I’d love if they signed one more HS/JUCO guy, but they probably don’t have the cash for it. At least, not without getting taxed. Right now it seems like they’ve done a nice job getting the most out of their bonus pool.

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