Texas signed second-round pick Connor Comeau for $2.5 million, according to Jim Callis, a number that blows past the $1,805,300 slot value for pick No. 54 by close to $700,000. That's not pocket change for a shortstop-turned-third-baseman who still has a summer left before he's technically 18.
Jim Callis broke the signing news and framed Comeau as one of the most advanced high school bats in the entire draft class.
Comeau comes out of Anderson High School in Austin, and by most accounts he was one of the youngest players in the whole class, still 17 on draft day. Scouts weren't fixated on his glove. Baseball America pegged him as a bat-first prospect who "stands out for his present hitting ability," with an easy lefty swing and real power projection packed into a 6-foot-4, 180-pound frame that still has room to fill out. The concern is what happens on defense, since he's a below-average runner who likely won't stick at shortstop long-term, with third base as the realistic landing spot.
None of that stopped Texas from writing a check well above slot, and that's the more interesting part of the story. Comeau was committed to Texas A&M, a real bet against signability that teams sometimes let slide in the second round. Instead the Rangers leaned in, and the money has to come from somewhere in a hard-capped draft pool.
That's where this ties back to the rest of Texas' class. First-rounder Gio Rojas, the prep lefty out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was regarded as the best prep arm in the draft, signed for roughly $4.6 million against a slot of just over $5 million — meaning he left money on the table. Third-round pick Brody Bumila, an injury-recovery case who'd carried first-round buzz before his junior year, signed for $2.75 million. Stack those together and it looks like classic pool math: save on the top and third picks, funnel the savings into the player you love in the middle.
It's the kind of aggressive, high-variance approach evaluators flagged all summer, betting big on ceiling over safety across three straight picks rather than just one splashy overslot swing. Whether it pays off is a five-year-plus question, but for one weekend in July, the Rangers made it clear which prep bat they wanted the most — and paid up to make sure they got him.