How do slot values and bonus pools affect MLB draft picks? – Boston Globe (subscription)
AP
The Red Sox tried to sign Alex Bregman (left) and Carson Fulmer (right) three years ago after drafting them on Day 3, but they opted to play college ball.
With a few exceptions (sometimes prominent ones), the picks taken in the first two days and 10 rounds of the draft will sign with the teams that draft them — in part because the clubs cross their T’s regarding signability due to the use-it-or-lose-it nature of their available draft bonus pools.
A primer: MLB has a recommended slot value for every pick in the first 10 rounds. How teams spend against that recommended pool through their first 10 rounds dictates whether they will incur penalties for exceeding the recommendations, beginning with a tax and going all the way up to the loss of future first-round picks for exceeding the recommended bonus pool by more than 5 percent.
The Red Sox, for instance, have just more than $6.2 million available in their draft bonus pool, with about $3.6 million allocated for the No. 7 overall pick in the draft and descending values all the way down to their 10th round selection, with a recommended slot of $152,700.
If the Sox signed their 10th rounder for, say, $1 million, that money would count against the $6.2 million total bonus pool. They’d have $847,300 less to spend on the rest of their draft.
But a team’s pool becomes more constrained if it fails to sign a pick. If the team doesn’t sign its 10th-rounder, it simply loses the $152,700 as part of its pool. There is no possibility of reallocation. It’s lost draft money.
That creates an immense incentive for teams to sign each of their picks from the first 10 rounds. Beyond that, however, there’s no consequence to a failure to sign a player. If the Sox don’t sign their 11th rounder, they don’t lose their available pool money.
As such, this is a place where teams with some money to play with after their selections from the first 10 rounds can take some shots on players whom they’re not certain to sign. Any overage beyond $100,000 for players drafted in rounds 11-40 counts against the draft bonus pool in rounds 1-10. That gives teams a shot to try to convince talented young players to sign, as the Sox did three years ago when they drafted talented high schoolers Alex Bregman and Carson Fulmer on Day 3.
The Sox made significant offers to both, but the duo elected to pursue their college careers and landed in the top eight picks in this year’s draft. Still, it was a shot worth taking in the eyes of the team.
Follow Alex Speier on Twitter @alexspeier.
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