![\"Team](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26083020781084-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Grady Emerson was the second overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, going to the Tampa Bay Rays. Tracy Proffitt \/ Four Seam Images via AP<\/p>\n
July 22, 2026 Updated 5:51 pm EDT<\/p>\n
The Tampa Bay Rays signed Grady Emerson for $9.75 million on Wednesday, establishing a new draft record for signing bonuses awarded to a high school player.<\/p>\n
The signing bonus received by Emerson, who was selected by Tampa Bay with the second overall pick<\/a> in the 2026 MLB Draft earlier this month, surpasses the previous record of $9 million received by Colorado\u2019s Ethan Holliday a year ago. The figure, first reported by Jim Callis of MLB.com, was confirmed by a person with knowledge of the matter, who spoke anonymously so as to freely discuss it.<\/p>\n Emerson earned Gatorade National Player of the Year honors after hitting .532\/.648\/1.013 with seven home runs and 50 RBIs in his senior season at Fort Worth (Tex.) Christian. He also joined Bobby Witt Jr., whom he considers a mentor<\/a>, as only the second high school player to ever be a semifinalist for the Rawlings Golden Spikes Award in the 20 years prep players were eligible.<\/p>\n Which teams fared well during MLB Draft Day 1?<\/p>\n Keith Law<\/p>\n \u201cA player of this caliber, you never want to limit, but you never want to put expectations on, either,\u201d Rays scouting director Chuck Ricci told reporters earlier this month. \u201cI think if Grady Emerson is Grady Emerson, that\u2019s all we can ask. He doesn\u2019t try to have to be somebody he\u2019s not. We\u2019re pretty happy with who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n A four-time Team USA player who was named to the All-World Team as a 17-year-old, Emerson stole 31 bases. His hit tool grades high and Emerson could stick as a shortstop, the position he played throughout high school.<\/p>\n The Athletic\u2019s Keith Law wrote this about Emerson: \u201cThe descriptions I hear from scouts and execs make it sound like they\u2019re hoping he\u2019s the next Kevin McGonigle. And maybe he is: Emerson does hit, making contact at a reasonably high clip last summer at showcases (13.3 percent strikeout rate, 23.3 percent whiff rate), while showing fringe-average power now that projects to above-average at his peak.\u201d<\/p>\n The signing comes at a time when the eligibility of high-school players for the draft has become a sticking point in labor negotiations between the MLB and MLBPA ahead of the next collective bargaining agreement. MLB\u2019s initial proposal<\/a> last month included hundreds of millions of dollars in reductions to the signing bonuses teams pay to amateurs annually and the elimination of high-school draft picks. The union said Tuesday it had formally rejected\u00a0the league\u2019s proposal on the draft, and instead proposed something more akin<\/a> to the current setup.<\/p>\n Jul 22, 2026<\/p>\n Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grady Emerson was the second overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, going to the Tampa Bay Rays.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99,974],"class_list":["post-778716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n