The Reds announced this evening that theyve officially signed second overall pick . MLB Pipelines Jim Callis reports ( ) the the right-hander received a $9.25MM signing bonus. While thats a bit shy of the $9.79MM slot value, its the largest signing bonus in draft history. Burns edges past the $9.2MM which secured as last years first overall pick. Its po sible that record will only stand for a few days. Burns is the first player from this years top 10 to sign. First overall pick (and potentially #3 selection ) could land a loftier bonus in the coming weeks. That wont be of much concern to Burns, the first pitcher to come off the board last week. While Burns was widely expected to be the top pitcher selected, he was a slightly surprising pick at #2. Condon and West Virginia infielder who slipped to the Cardinals at Drey Jameson Jersey #7 were marginally ahead of Burns on most public rankings heading into the draft, largely because of the heightened injury risk for pitchers. and each had Burns as the #5 player in the cla s. slotted him sixth, while ranked him fourth. All four publications had Burns and Arkansas lefty as the top two pitchers in some order. Burns was a high-profile draft prospect as a high schooler back in 2021. Teams werent willing to meet his asking price at the time, leading the 63 righty to the University of Tenne see. Burns had two strong seasons in Knoxville and transferred to Wake Forest for his draft year. He started 16 times for the Demon Deacons, firing 100 innings with a 2.70 earned run average. Burns fanned nearly half the batters he faced and easily led Division I pitchers with 191 strikeouts. Smith was second in the nation with 161 punchouts. He kept his walk rate to a 7.7% clip and finished his college career with a 40% strikeout rate against a 7.6% walk percentage. With that level of dominance, its not surprising that prospect evaluators suggest Burns has a top-of-the-rotation ceiling. Reports credit him with an upper-90s fastball that can run as high as 100 or 101 MPH. That pitch and his wipeout slider have each gotten 70 or 80 grades on the 20-80 scouting scale. Burns curveball and changeup are a bit behind the fastball/slider combination and scouting reports point to some effort in his delivery, but theres not much question about his ability to stick as a starter. Both Law and McDaniel note that he could move quickly through the minors. Cincinnati selected another Wake Forest righty, , in the top 10 a year ago. Theyre hopeful that duo will join , and as part of a homegrown starting staff. Theres injury risk with any group of young pitchers and the Reds will need more than five starters on an annual basis, but that quintet could be the nucleus of one of the sports best rotations if things break right over the next couple seasons. Andrew Saalfrank Jersey