The Meralco Bolts have signed rookie Alvin Pasaol to a two-year deal on Thursday, ESPN5.com has confirmed.
The burly forward, the ninth overall pick in the PBA Season 46 Rookie Draft, signed the deal in the presence of Bolts team governor Paolo Trillo and agent Marvin Espiritu at the Meralco Gym in Pasig.
Pasaol was the lone rookie signee of the Bolts in the offseason after third-round pick JR Yasa and fourth-round pick Luis Brill were left unsigned and are now unrestricted free agents.
The Bolts will be getting a proven scorer in Pasaol, who averaged 22.5 points in his last two years with the University of the East Red Warriors.
Pasaol is expected to somewhat lift up Meralco's offense from the bench, something that had been lacking in their 2020 PBA Philippine Cup campaign.
"There have been very few people that have come through the UAAP that could score the basketball like him. I think you can count it on two hands, probably. Allan Caidic, James Yap, maybe Kenneth Duremdes, Terrence Romeo. There aren't that many people that come through the UAAP and score 20+ points per game," described Bolts head coach Norman Black in a previous interview.
"He's a proven scorer. We do have to get him in shape, there's no question about that but he realizes that. He has to get in better shape, and I'm sure he'll work hard to do so," he added.
Pasaol will join a Bolts team that fell just short of a finals appearance in the PBA Bubble, where they lost at the buzzer in Game 5 of their semifinals series with eventual champion Barangay Ginebra.