It’s signing day. The final day is here for the Kansas City Royals to sign their first round choice (and any others remaining for that matter) and Bubba Starling is either going to walk away from $7 million-plus to hopefully play quarterback for the Nebraska Cornhuskers as they head toward the Big Ten, or he’ll sign on the dotted line after months of silence and take his place on a minor league bus somewhere in the Royals farm system. I’d bet the house on the latter.
Scott Boras is the agent and we’ve discussed already that the Royals have a history with the polarizing agent. He also represented Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer, and both players are now with the major league club. Starling is a local product with fantastic talents (and a sincere love) for both sports. It’s just that one will give him an instant shot to produce and give him millions of dollars for it. The other comes with being buried on the depth chart and a freshman experience in college.
Boras’ negotations always go down to the wire. It was even recently reported that the Royals hadn’t even extended an official offer as of last week. Both sides know there’s a time to meet on the playground, so to speak, so no one is going to bother showing up even a minute before. That’s because the other party won’t be there anyway.
So signing day will finally bring all of the talks and negotiations that could have and should have been happening until now. Starling will be a Royal in the end, and all of the posturing and supposed leverage to attend the University of Nebraska has all been for naught. No matter what you’ve heard, Starling was destined to be a Royal the moment his name was called in June.