JUNE 21: The Braves have also agreed to a $1.5MM signing bonus for No. 76 pick Brett Cumberland, MLBTR has learned (Twitter link). Cumberland, a catcher and draft-eligible sophomore out of Cal, receives a bonus that lands $661K over his slot value of $839,100. He ranked in the Top 100 draft prospects from BA, ESPN and MLB.com, with each praising him as one of the more advanced college bats in the draft but questioning his ability to stick behind the plate. Additionally, Callis reported over the weekend that fourth-rounder Bryse Wilson, a high school right-hander our of North Carolina, agreed to a $1.2MM bonus that represented a deal that was $653K over slot (Twitter link).
That means that the Braves’ second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth selections in the draft have combined to receive bonuses that exceed their pool allotments by a total of about $3.9MM. Atlanta also went $300K over slot for 11th-round pick Matt Bowland, as Callis tweeted last week. That’s a total of $4.2MM in excesses, although the Braves did save approximately $2.5MM by agreeing to a reported bonus of “about” $4MM with No. 3 overall pick Ian Anderson. And, as Callis and Jonathan Mayo have been tracking at MLB.com, the Braves have saved $134,600 on fifth-rounder Jeremy Walker, $281,600 on sixth-rounder Matthew Gonzalez and $219,700 on seventh-rounder J.B. Moss. Atlanta also has a string of college seniors at picks 8-10, and college seniors will often sign for about $10K.
The Braves entered this year’s draft with a $13,319,600 pool and bolstered that figure when they acquired a Competitive Balance pick in the Brian Matusz trade, bringing their total allotment to $14,158,500. They’ll be able to exceed that sum by about $797K without going into the penalty bracket that would force them to lose a future first-round pick. With the over-slot deals to their second through sixth picks as well as their 11th-rounder, the Braves have currently agreed to $13,760,000 in total commitments, placing them about $1.1MM shy of the threshold at which they’d lose a future first-round pick.
JUNE 14: The Braves have agreed to terms with a trio of recently-drafted lefties, per Jim Callis of MLB.com (Twitter links). Competitive balance Round A selection Joey Wentz, second-round choice Kyle Muller, and third-rounder Drew Harrington will all land above-slot bonuses.
Wentz will receive a $3.05MM bonus after being taken with the 40th overall pick, which came with a $1,616,800 pool allocation. Muller’s $2.5MM payday lands over the slot value ($1,459,700) at number 44. And Harrington, who received a bonus of $900K, will also cost the club an additional $111,200 over the value of his own slot.
Wentz, a high school lefty out of Kansas, was seen as a top-thirty prospect entering the draft. Indeed, MLB.com prospect gurus Callis and Jonathan Mayo rated him the 16th-best prospect available, with ESPN’s Keith Law (22nd) and the Baseball America team (26th) having him a bit further down on their boards.
Atlanta was obviously intrigued enough to lure Wentz away from the University of Virginia with a big payday. The appeal lies in his well-rounded arsenal, which includes low-to-mid 90s heater with movement as well as a curve-change offspeed combo. Evaluators also liked Wentz’s large frame, mechanics, and athleticism — not to mention his makeup. It doesn’t hurt that he is also a legitimate hitting prospect.
Likewise, the club nabbed Muller just four picks later. He, too, is a high school draftee with a big body and two-way ability. BA had him rated just ahead of Wentz on its board, noting some of his astounding results on the high school mound. He has only just developed a low-90s fastball, and his secondary offerings aren’t regarded as being special, so there is some projection from those who like the one-time University of Texas commit. MLB.com is also bullish, placing him 24th, while Law saw Muller as the 58th-best name on the board.
Wentz and Muller were clearly major motivating factors in the Braves’ draft day approach. The club went with Ian Anderson with its opening pick, number three overall, with the apparent expectation of locking in savings against the $6.51MM allocation that came with his selection.
As things stand, Atlanta is $2,584,700 over the line with just these three signings. That means the team will need to save quite a bit on Anderson to get in under its overall $13,224,100 pool. The team can go up to 5% over that amount — an additional $661,205 — before hitting penalties that require the sacrifice of a future draft pick.
Dope
Good to hear. U always assume teams draft knowing they can get a deal done but there’s always that slight risk, especially with someone as talented as Wentz
Yes the Wentz signing is a great deal.
It seems like almost the entire first draft day was centered on Wentz. This kid better be good.
Hope things stay smooth with Anderson. Don’t need an Astros repeat where they lost the 1-1 money allotments because they wouldn’t sign (Aiken?) hurt and lost an overslot prospect or two with him as a result.
If that somehow didn’t happen there would be a lot of ticked off people. I mean the Braves passed on Kyle Lewis and anyone on offense to sign this kid. But if that did happen they would get the #4 pick next year though.
Presumably 2 of the top-5 picks (factoring in this year’s top draft pick, at the rate we’re going) sounds good and could allow us to benefit from more bats, but we’d really have to keep our purse strings tight to not go over. Unless I’m reading this wrong, I don’t think there would be any extra allotment to the team the next season if their pick carries over, but I’d like to be corrected if someone knows. Thank you!
They get the 4th pick and the money the slot value the 4th pick brings.
I thought they had an agreement before they drafted Anderson. Would be kinda dumb if he changes his mind and they lose that money.
I’m not implying otherwise. They’ll probably lock that up in short order.
I’ve always assumed that such an agreement is more framework than an actual firm agreement. I imagine they’ll sign most of their other picks then give Anderson whatever is left, with a certain amount as a floor for what he’d agree to. That would seem to make sense. Any insight into that, Jeff? Also, what are the pick and bonus slot ramifications for not agreeing with a first round pick? Don’t you get the same pick in the next draft? Also, if you don’t agree to terms with your first round pick, do you lose the bonus allocation associated with the pick?
” Also, what are the pick and bonus slot ramifications for not agreeing with a first round pick? Don’t you get the same pick in the next draft?”
If you do not agree with any pick, 1-10, you lose that money. For instance say your first round pick’s slot money is worth $5M, with a total pool of $8.5M. If you do not sign your first round pick you will lose the $5M slot now have just $3.5M to sign the remainder of your picks, not $8.5M. Also, if you fail to sign a pick you get a pick one spot lower next year. If you fail to sign the number 3 pick, you’d get the number 4 pick in next seasons draft as well as your regular pick. It is what happened to the Astros when they didn’t sign Aiken. They got the number 2 pick plus the number 5 or 6 pick.
While it could be foolish, drafting someone with the intention of not signing them could be a strategically smart move too. IF there’s a draft with a lot of talent coming up, a team could really maximize their abilities to sign extra players in a better draft by not signing a player the year before. They’d increase the number of picks they’d have, and drastically increase their bonus pool available—especially if it’s a high first-rounder they don’t sign—to sign players. Who would want to willingly give up a first rounder? Not many teams, but if you had a chance to double up and land players like Kris Bryant and Jon Gray/J.P. Crawford in the same draft, would you consider it?
Anderson can’t sign until he graduated high school June 23rd
It good news the sign those 3 once the sign Anderson rest of the picks I expect we will her a trade . And after tonight I hope people see how good he really is he did give that home run which he got to cut done on but to not give up hit after that pitch 6 scoreless I Ing after that Bruce is get hitter and he throw back door slitter twice
That cost him . I know his slitter is very good but I mite have used his great change up that has been his calling card and once again he hit 94 on gun which shows he can hit 95 if he max effort but once again he showed it about pitching not throwing and hey showed a stat on him does show he is pitching great he just pitching bad luck with home runs and it also showed that max scherzer has higher home run to hits % any that he actually lead major in that cal. And Tehran is 4 but he. It the worse this season and every body things scherzer is top 5 pitcher in baseball
Hopefully one of the catchers in these past drafts will stick. Can’t wait to see them in 6 years
Yeah because us banking on Bethancourt surely didn’t work out well. May not have been anything major, but that was one step in needing the rebuild.
What do you think about taking a flier on Suzuki next season?
If not, know that 2 of the top-rated prospects next year at catchers, though I’m really hesitant on spending a top draft pick on a catcher. Rarely ever turns out well.
But when it works out… Brian McCann for 8mil a year is nice
There are some differing numbers in this article. The last paragraph from June 14 has it right, the Braves can spend $13,224,100 (their pool) + up to 5% ($661,205), that’s a total of $13,885,305 without losing a 1st round pick. Assuming Anderson signs for exactly $4mil, they will have spent $13,860,000 against their pool (they went over slot on rounds 15 and 19 too)., giving them about $25,000 to sign their picks from rounds 8-10. There is also a quirk that that could allow them to spend $25,000 on top of that, so don’t freak out if they go slightly over.
?? Thought the money allotment was only for the first 10 picks.. Then different rules apply.. Anyone able to explain how it actually works?
Mike…
The bonus pool allotments apply to Rounds 1-10. Players after Round 10 can be signed to up to $100K bonuses without t applying to the pool. If they exceed a $100K bonus after round 10, then the amount over $100K has to be counted against the pool allotment.
Thanks Jervass. So 8-10 picks being college seniors means they will sign for prob. Around 25k which means Braves will avoid any future lose! Go BRAVES!
I don’t get why there is soending pools in MLB draft expically when u can sign anyone in the majors for any kind of money doesn’t make sense to me