The Phillies announced that they have agreed to terms with high school outfielder Mickey Moniak, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft earlier this month. Terms of his bonus were not disclosed by the team, but MLB.com’s Jim Callis reports that Moniak received a $6.1MM bonus (Twitter link). The No. 1 overall pick came with a slot value of $9,015,000 this season.
Moniak, who turned 18 just over a month ago, rated as the No. 5 overall prospect in the class on the pre-draft rankings of Baseball America, ESPN’s Keith Law and Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com. However, the bulk of mock drafts from those outlets in the days just prior to the draft had forecast that Philadelphia would indeed tab the California native as the top pick in this year’s draft.
Moniak had been committed to UCLA but will forego college and instead embark on his professional career. The aforementioned rankings heap praise onto Moniak for his hit tool, grading it as the top high school hit tool in the entire draft. He’s an above-average runner that is said to have great instincts in center field, and each of the reports above expresses confidence that he can stay there. Moniak doesn’t project to develop significant power due to a fairly slight frame, though Baseball America invokes a comparison to Marlins outfielder Christian Yelich — an outcome with which the Phillies would surely be thrilled.
The Phillies, per Callis, had an overall draft pool of $13,405,200, which was the second-largest among all big league teams this season. Because Moniak didn’t command the full value of that slot — and it’s worth noting that none of the players selected first overall have commanded full slot value since the current iteration of draft signing rules was implemented — the Phillies will be able to reallocate roughly $3MM worth of savings to later picks. Among the notable high school names drafted by the Phillies that may require over-slot deals to break college commitments are second-round pick Kevin Gowdy, third-round pick Cole Stobbe and 11th-round pick Josh Stephen.
I thought Stobbe signed for $1.1 million. Is it just not official yet because of Moniak and Gowdy?
I thought they did as well. Maybe it’s not official yet pending a physical.
Glad we have him locked up!
Phillies did well
Interesting note on all the underslot value for first picks. Of course, that will change if there’s ever another Harper or Strasburg type talent. I’ve never bought into the idea that teams in the top of the draft take “lesser” prospects to save money. The idea that a team would take a player even though they think there’s a better player on the board to save money seems a little overstated. It’s more of teams get how much of a crapshoot the MLB draft is more so than other pro sports so they look at it as a whole draft, i.e. Braves ending up with 3 of the top 10 prep pitchers. I wonder how many top 10 pick teams have passed on prospects they feel are more superior to save money
He should’ve went to college
He was the number one pick and made 6 . If he fails he gets free college. He made the right decision if he believes he he can make an impact at the milb level. Time will tell but aren’t many times you get drafted number 1.
Most college graduates don’t earn $6MM in their lifetimes. Even assuming he got a completely free ride at a university, and landed a 6-figure job (let’s say $150K/year) immediately on graduation, he wouldn’t have earned that $6MM back before he turned 60.
Now, he gets $6MM, has a chance to be in one of the most lucrative careers in the world (if he ever makes the MLB, he earns a minimum of $500K/year on top of that $6MM – even if he doesn’t ever progress above A- ball, he makes an extra $1,100/month his rookie season, and it can only go up from there), and if things turn out poorly? He can walk away, donate half of his signing bonus to whatever university he wants to attend, and attend a lecture in Moniak Hall – also without having to worry about tuition.
should’ve gone