Yes, it appears that Josh Fields and the Mariners have agreed to a contract, with his signing bonus likely somewhere in the $1.5 - $2.0 million range. Yes, that means one of the first round picks, 22, that many of us thought to be in the bag is now gone.
However, it's not like we get nothing out of this. We get Josh Fields. Yeah, you can get a higher ceiling player out of that slot, but there's a couple things to keep in mind. For those of you who attended last June's meet up, Bob Fontaine raved about Fields and Fontaine has a better scouting mind than everyone here put together. Jack Zduriencik, who is in that same stratosphere approved this deal as well. So you have Jack Zduriencik and Bob Fontaine (among others) saying this player can help us. Maybe we should trust them for until we hear more details?
Furthermore, we know the budget is a concern this season. We've seen the big league team pass on opportunities it liked because of money constraints. The number two overall pick is going to require a lot of bonus money. Three other picks in top 40 were probably going to strain that budget so there was always a chance that among those picks the team would have taken a signability player.
Lets wait and see how much Fields got and what the rest of Zduriencik's plans are before passing judgement. He at least deserves that much given his track record so far.