Rays' top 2 draft picks go unsigned

LeVon Washington was the embodiment of youthful enthusiasm on draft day, saying he jumped up and down so hard after being drafted by Tampa Bay that he broke two of his necklaces and vowing that he would be a Ray.

After that, though, there was only silence, and Monday afternoon the Rays decided to move on without him.

Facing a money gap too wide to bridge with the 30th overall pick in this year's draft, the Rays announced several hours before the midnight signing deadline that there would be no deal with the former Gainesville Buchholz High star.

Even if they had been able to find a workable solution on a bonus, Washington - who is coming off shoulder surgery - still would have had to take and pass a physical before a deal could be done. With limited hours remaining in the day for all the logistics to come together, the Rays pulled the plug around noon.

"We put forth an offer that was consistent with late-round, first-round picks," Rays executive vice president Andrew Friedman said on a late-afternoon conference call. "If the gap had been small I imagine there would have been more conversations this morning and this afternoon, but we never really got to the point where that was relevant."

Friedman wouldn't discuss the specifics of the Rays' offer, but it was believed to be higher than Major League Baseball's recommended bonus for the 30th pick - about $1.1 million.

Washington chose super-agent Scott Boras as his adviser, and Boras clients typically hold out until the 11th hour (or later) before signing - if they sign at all. Washington did not return a phone message left Monday, and it's unclear what his immediate future holds.

He had signed a letter-of-intent to play baseball at Florida, but the Gainesville Sun reported Washington did not meet the necessary academic requirements and will have to turn to junior college or the independent leagues while awaiting his next shot at the draft.

The Rays also announced Monday that they would not be signing second-round pick Kenny Diekroeger, who has seemingly known all along what he planned to do. The California high school shortstop will honor his commitment to Stanford as expected, though Rays scouting director R.J. Harrison said the team did its best to woo him.

"We did a real sales job on Kenny," Harrison said. "Our relationship with that kid and that family is really, really very good, and we knew there was a real possibility we couldn't get this done, but we felt the upside to taking a swing at this was so good that we wanted to go ahead and do it."

Friedman said there was some frustration in not being able to bring in the Rays' top two picks, but no resentment or anger. The Rays will receive compensatory picks for both players in next year's draft, officially selections 30-A and 78-A overall, and they were pleased to be able to sign seven of their top 10 selections (10th pick Derek Dennis did not sign).

Four of those selections - all out of high school - signed within the past few days for reported bonuses that were significantly over recommended slot values: third-rounder Todd Glaesmann ($930,000), fourth-rounder Luke Bailey ($750,000), fifth-rounder Jeff Malm ($680,000) and ninth-rounder Kevin James.($625,000).

"The players that we did sign, if you looked at our draft board before the draft, we feel like we came away with four of the top 60 or 70 players in the country and we only had one pick in that time period," Friedman said. "So we were very aggressive taking players that we liked a lot that slipped a little bit due to signability."