WASHINGTON (AP) -The Nationals failed to sign first-round draft pick Aaron Crow by Friday night’s midnight deadline, winding up $900,000 apart in negotiation.
“We were extremely competitive trying to sign him. We offered a major league contract,” general manager Jim Bowden said. “We were there, doing everything we could to sign the player. Obviously, we’re very disappointed.”
Bowden said advisers to Crow, a right-hander out of Missouri taken with the ninth overall selection in June’s draft, initially sought a $9 million deal. The Nationals were presented with their first monetary demands Aug. 12.
The Nationals didn’t want to go above the $2.1 million they gave last year’s sixth overall pick, left-hander Ross Detwiler, but made a final offer of $3.5 million to Crow shortly before midnight Friday. They also agreed to give Crow a major league deal – something the team hasn’t done with its first-round picks since moving to Washington before the 2005 season.
Crow’s camp countered with a request for $4.4 million, still substantially above Major League Baseball’s recommendation for that slot in the draft order.
“They never gave us a dollar figure,” Bowden said. “What they told us was … ‘We want a major league contract and we want a quote-unquote out-of-the-box deal.’ We gave them a major league contract and gave them an out-of-the-box deal.”
With their negotiating rights lost, the Nationals will receive an extra selected in the first of the 2009 draft, after the regular ninth overall selection. With a 44-78 record – worst in the majors – the Nationals could own the first and 10th selections in next year’s draft.
The Nationals did come to terms with two more picks before Friday’s deadline – outfielders Marcus Jones, a Washington, D.C., native chosen in the 11th round out of North Carolina State, and J.P. Ramirez, a 15th-round selection from Canyon (Texas) High School. Bowden said Ramirez received a seven-figure bonus.
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