<table> </table> We knew the Royals cut it close. But <em>this</em> close?</p><p>Joakim Soria recorded the final out of a crazy game in Yankee Stadium at 10:58 p.m. Friday, two minutes before the deadline for this June&#8217;s draft picks to sign. At that point, the Royals were <em>still</em> working the phones to finish the deal with first-round pick Eric Hosmer.</p><p>Years from now, if everything goes the way the Royals hope, this draft may be looked upon as a significant turning point &#8212; both in the players it may produce, and the money it took to sign them.</p><p>The Royals spent about $10.2 million on their first 10 signees alone &#8212; with $6 million of that going to Hosmer. All that cash shows a different kind of commitment to building a better farm system, even if Royals executives may not be crazy about the market direction.</p><p>&#8220;I guess I&#8217;d categorize it as somewhat troubling,&#8221; general manager Dayton Moore said. &#8220;The market, unfortunately, forces you to be very aggressive if you want to be competitive. But at the end of the day, I feel great about the player (Hosmer).&#8221;</p><p>Hosmer&#8217;s bonus is the biggest in franchise history, as is the Royals&#8217; total payout for this year&#8217;s draft class.</p><p>Internally, Royals officials are thrilled with the 31 players they signed, from Hosmer and fourth-rounder Tim Melville, all the way through 50th-round pick Travis Jones, a high school catcher who Moore says &#8220;had every bit as good a summer as Hosmer.&#8221;</p><p>The eight-figure payout is significantly more than the original budget given by ownership. Royals president Dan Glass served as Moore&#8217;s primary contact Friday night in extending that budget.</p><p>Conversations between Glass and Moore continued into the last hour before the deadline. Glass said it wasn&#8217;t an easy decision to commit more money, but he was moved in the end &#8220;to be helpful in the process&#8221; so the Royals can continue to improve.</p><p>&#8220;At some point, something has to happen to correct the system,&#8221; Glass said. &#8220;But it&#8217;s the same thing as any sport, the market will (dictate) those numbers. I think baseball will take a hard look at it at some point and try to refine it so it&#8217;s a little more balanced for all of us, but for now, this is how it is, and we&#8217;ll play by the rules we have.&#8221;</p><p>As expensive as it got for the Royals, it could have been worse. Reports had Hosmer and his adviser, Scott Boras, seeking a deal equal to the deal signed by Boras client Rick Porcello last year.</p><p>Porcello, a right-handed high school pitcher, dropped to the Tigers at No. 27 overall because of his asking price but signed a $7 million big-league deal that included a $3.5 million bonus.</p><p>Hosmer&#8217;s deal split the difference between Porcello&#8217;s total and $5 million, which is believed to be the Royals&#8217; initial offer.</p><p>Managing the increasing payouts to draft picks has been a hot topic among baseball executives and agents. Many believe the issue will be addressed when it&#8217;s time to negotiate another collective-bargaining agreement in three years.</p><p>With Gordon Beckham (first overall to the Rays, $6.15 million), third baseman Pedro Alvarez (second to the Pirates, $6 million), Hosmer and catcher Buster Posey (fifth to the Giants, a record $6.2 million), four of the biggest five bonuses in baseball history were signed this year.</p><p>But at least one baseball official said he hoped the market was stabilizing. His thinking was that if Alvarez or Hosmer had dropped to a richer team lower in the draft &#8212; as Porcello did last year &#8212; they may have received the bigger deal they were seeking and advanced the market even more. But those are issues for another day.