Baseball America: Callis: Red Sox: Breaking The $10 Million Barrier

The Red Sox spent in excess of $10 million on their draft, which may be a first in draft history.

Records for yearly expenditures by clubs are incomplete. But while an exact total isn’t available yet, it’s certain that Boston’s draft spending exceeded eight figures this year.

The Red Sox spent $8.99 million on their 12 choices in the first 10 rounds, including $3 million on first-rounder Casey Kelly, $2 million on fifth-rounder Ryan Westmoreland and $1 million on fourth-rounder Pete Hissey. They paid out another $1 million on four late-rounders: 13th-rounder Tyler Wilson ($300,000), 27th-rounder Hunter Cervenka ($350,000), 35th-rounder Carson Blair ($200,000) and 50th-rounder Kyle Stroup ($150,000). [Stroup was the 1,504th and final player selected in the 2008 draft.]

That takes Boston to $9.99 million, and it signed 13 additional players at a minimum of $1,000 each (at least a couple of those got more substantial bonuses), taking them past $10 million. They also offered $2 million to 20th-rounder Alex Meyer, only to get turned down.

Thanks to Bob Dulibation.