12:42pm: The Braves have now announced the signing. Heyman tweets that Wright’s bonus is exactly $7MM, which tops Kris Bryant ($6.7MM) as the largest bonus given under the current draft structure..
7:45am: The Braves have reached an agreement with No. 5 overall pick Kyle Wright, reports MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. The Vanderbilt right-hander will receive a bonus worth a bit more than $7MM, placing him well above the $5,707,300 value of his draft slot. FanRag’s Jon Heyman reported yesterday that the two sides were discussing a deal worth close to $7MM. Wright is represented by CAA.
Wright, at one point, was considered to be the likely first overall pick, but draft-day rumors suggested that the Twins had narrowed their choices to Royce Lewis and Brendan McKay, with Lewis ultimately going first. That allowed Wright to drop to the Braves with the fifth overall selection, giving Atlanta the opportunity to pick the player that they had ranked No. 1 on their board, according to scouting director Brian Bridges.
“It’s far-fetched when you get the guy who is still on the board who shouldn’t still be on the board who is advanced for his age,” Bridges said to Bowman. “He brings everything we want to see. He was definitely No. 1 on our board, so we feel really good about where we are.”
Wright was a consensus top five talent, per the pre-draft rankings of Baseball America, ESPN, MLB.com and Fangraphs. The 6’4″, 220-pound righty has drawn praise for a mid-90s fastball that he can run up to 97 mph — the best of his four-pitch mix. Wright is also said to have a curveball that ranges from above-average to plus as well as a slider and a changeup, both of which can be average or better big league offerings. He still has some work to do when it comes to consistently locating his pitches, but most scouting reports on him feel that he’ll ultimately have average or better command in the Majors as well.
Wright joins high school right-hander Shane Baz among first-round picks to reach agreements with their teams already just days after the draft. (Baz agreed to a deal with the Pirates yesterday.) The Braves will spend “approximately $8.7MM” between Wright and their second-round pick, Drew Waters, according to Bowman, which should mean that Waters will agree to a deal in the general vicinity of his $1.675MM slot value.
With all the penalties for going over slot it seems mighty risky to sign the over slot players before the announcements for the under slot signings in the top ten rounds. Of course I’m quite sure that the Braves realized that Wright would be an over slot signing when they drafted him and have a plan in place.
They drafted some college seniors and lower rated guys to make up for it. Hopefully they can get them all signed
It’s been reported that an agreement has been reached. That’s much different than announcing his signing. I’m sure the rest of the signings will happen and then they’ll formally sign him and announce it themselves. But reaching an agreement and having it reported represents only minimal risk in the form of public scrutiny if it falls through.
They just put out a press release and are having a conference this afternoon.
The problem with that logic is that if a player does not sign then the team loses that pool money.
Yes, I realize that. And I’m sure the Braves realize that. Just saying that reporting there’s a deal in place and formally announcing a signing are two entirely different things. In all likelihood, the rest of the signings are official before Wright’s. You don’t take college seniors in Rounds 5-10 without the terms ironed out in advance.
Maybe I’m misreading your comment, but I thought the whole point of taking college seniors is because you can pay them way under slot and they’ll take it? They have no leverage so I doubt you have to have any sort of terms in place before hand.
We’re on the same page. You can basically pay them whatever you’d like, but without them signing on the dotted line, the team doesn’t get the pool money to allocate to another pick (i.e. Wright). So it’s in the team’s best interest to get a verbal commitment at certain monetary terms before selecting that player at the back of the top 10 rounds to ensure they’ll have the pool money to pay the over-slot deals. Then you have to actually sign that later-round player to the lesser terms before signing the over-slot deal. Or it’d be risky, should that later-round pick decide they need more money, at which point penalties would be in play.
Wright is actually a junior, so he did have some leverage. The Braves draft pool for this draft is 9.9 miilion, roughly; they only pay a penalty for going over that total in the first ten rounds, not for going over slot on a single pick. It’s likely they’ll spend less than 2.9 million on their next 9 picks, unless they aren’t going to sign all of them or something, though.
The rest of the draft was sacrificed to fit Wright into the bonus pool….i hope he is worth it
Can he hit? What positions can he play?
The Braves seem determined to construct a team that can pitch it’s way into the playoffs and then go home after the first round.
If you can’t hit, you can’t win. Teams that can hit advance, teams that can’t immediately go home.
On the contrary my friend. You need a stable staff beyond all. A good staff can hold its own on a good offense and a mediocre offense can then score as opposed to giving up 10 runs with a shotty staff and your offense scoring 9 runs. Pitching is both scarce and difficult to acquire so it’s important to draft pitchers.
They have albies, acuna, Maitan, Swanson is better than he’s been this year, freeman had officially gone from very good to superstar, you have s legit leadoff hitter inciarte. Their problem this year hasnt been offended, it’s been the pitching
Adding to that, the whole hitting philosophy dramatically changed with John Hart/Coppy emphasizing more OBP and less strikeouts over HR. That’s not to say less HR, but less guys striking out 200x per year (i.e. Upton bros, Uggla, Heyward?, Gattis, etc.). For example, Brett Cumberland (our C prospect) has been challenging Trout for the pro baseball lead in OBP this season.. Yes, it’s only A-ball, but a 21 y/o hitting .430 OBP with an odd .257 AVG is really interesting. We’ve had more timely hitting this year, as opposed to year’s past where Justin Upton was king of the solo shot. It helps when you have Freeman, who has always done well with RISP.
Yea Casey, I don’t agree. In fact, our team can hit pretty darn well right now as it is. But our pitching is brutal.
It takes one swing of a bat to change a ball game, it takes a lot of pitches to maintain a ball game. Pitching is pretty darn important, and the braves are hoping to make their pitching deep and top to bottom legit.
After this year, I wouldn’t be surprised for the braves to have 3 or 4 players in the top 15 on prospects list, with only 1 being a pitcher. Acuna has been beasting up double a at only 20? Maitan is very exciting. I’m glad the braves decided to go best player available instead of sacrificing quality for quantity
They hit pretty well this year. Braves would have 5+ more wins if they had a decent ERA.
The attrition rate of pitchers is so high, because of injury, that it makes sense to stockpile arms. No way they all make the majors intact.
The Cubs took the exact opposite tack in their rebuild. Stockpile position players and sign proven pitchers in FA to anchor the staff.
cubs also have money to sign proven SP (most expensive FA type).
But won’t re-sign Arrieta…? If and when they want to plug holes in their rotation they can deal from their rich farm of positional prospects. Seems like they dodged a bullet with Soler.
tell that to the royals and giants when they both won the WS
on a 25 man roster, 12 of them will be pitchers. Inciarte, Freeman, and Swanson already have spots. Plus pitching prospects are the best trade currency
The Braves are far enough away from the Play-offs, to necessitate taking the best talent available, rather than a specific side of the ball. They can get choosey when they are a piece or two away – right now, they just need to develop good players.
And exactly who would you have them draft? The braves are overflowing at the Brim with middle infield prospects, so much so that they could afford to give up a legit prospect for the rental of Matt Adams as likely nothing more than a PR move in a lost season. First base is officially log jammed, and it’s not like it’s difficult to stick a player in the position in the event of a jam. Third-base, again when you count the surplus from the middle infield, has three or four legit prospects. Centerfield is also log jam with Inciarte his deal, not to mention it for well looks like the intention is left field is too with Matt camp. Still, the braves have a bevy of up the middle outfield prospects, with over four from there and third base moving to the corners, in addition to a few corner prospects as well. The one position where their legitimately lacking is catcher. Even this may have changed recently with Cumberland and Austin Jackson looking better and better. So I ask again, who would you were drafted?
The Braves are clearly pretty determined to field a winner before Freeman gets too old and the new stadium is no longer the new stadium. And John Schuerholz is still trying to recreate the 90’s Braves primetime.
It’s funny that so many are complaining about ATL drafting pitchers instead of hitters.. Considering their offense is pretty good this season, yet their record isn’t! Wonder why?? Oh, yeah the starting pitching has been awful for the most part. Go Braves! With Ender, Freeman, Swanson and Albies on the way, they have a good core. They have $$ to spend over the next few years and a lot of FA hitters coming available.. the end of this rebuild is in sight and it will be sooner than most think!! Go Braves!
Like mentioned above they have some upside bats in the system. They have a chance to have something special in about 2 years
Do you guys think that with the amount of pitching the braves have stock piled in the minors and some intriguing hitters the braves would possibly go after machado and or Harper?
Cf inciarte
3b machado
Rf harper
1b freeman
Lf kemp
C flowers
Ss Swanson
2b alibes
This would be assuming we could sign both and resign flowers and kemp
Harper will be in New York or LA.. Machado would be great..
Machado will likely be in Philly
No. They can not afford to field a team like that.
What….there is no way they sign 1 of machado/harper let alone both
yea they prob won’t sign either. and don’t quote me, but i’m pretty sure Harper HATES atl. Machado might be interesting though. I doubt we would end up getting him or make a serious effort to go get him… but out of the two in this fantasy land, he’s more likely.
At the end of the day it’s all about money…. so anything is possible if the cheap braves open the wallets a little.
Wouldn’t be suprised if we go after Longoria. Now whether the rays move him or not is a different story.
No Machado, there’s other attainable 3B. I like Ryon Healy of OAK, and it seems like they’re always rebuilding and can recognize quality talent in exchange for quality talent. Healy is controllable, while providing a mid-order RH bat that would allow us to not be so reliant on RH Matt Kemp and his awful defense (with a corresponding move upgrading OF, eventually).
Healy’s a natural first baseman, is atrocious in the field, hence why the A’s called up Chapman yesterday, would cost a fortune in a trade, and will most likely be the A’s DH moving forward
Ryon Healy and Manny Machado are not exactly comparable assets…
I wasn’t going for a Machado comp, just an upgrade from what we have to fill what we need without spending $350M, even if it means dealing from a stocked farm. A $350M player like Machado doesn’t have many comps, and definitely not one that is available and can help in the short term…or he’d be in ATL right now.
I have no idea how chesteraarthur didn’t see that. lol It was clear what you were trying to say. He’s just trying to troll.
I doubt any team is committing 600 million dollars to two players. And I can’t imagine Kemp is a guy the Braves are going to be trying to re-sign when his contract is finally up.
600m is on the low end, too.
Why would the Braves want to re-sign Kemp? Even hitting well, he is barely above replacement level player because his defense is so bad.
Harper will be a $400 million signing. Machado nearly as much. That is Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Cubs, Phillies contract. No one else can really afford it.
Don’t we all dream of seeing 3 great young talents on one team. (Freeman, Machado, Harper) but it couldn’t happen.. way too much money for the cheap braves
Thankfully, my dreams don’t include Harper. Even there Liberty’s thriftiness looms.
Seriously?? The Braves signing Harper AND Machado?? The likelihood of signing either is roughly idk, about 1%…much less signing both…
Also, completely off-topic, but Minter finally made his debut this season…1 IP, 0H, 0R, 3K’s…lol..The duDe is absurdly talented, he just cannot stay healthy..If he does stay healthy, then he very well could be one of the most reliable and dominant set-up men/closers Atlanta has had since Kimbrel, Venters, Rocker, and/or old Smoltzy..The sky is the limit with Minter, he just has to somehow stay healthy!!
As for bats in the Braves system, they do have D.Peterson, Albies, Demeritte, and Acuna that are all fairly close. Then lower down, they have Riley, A.Jax, Castro, Ventura, Pache, Cumberland, Neslony, etc. along with their highly talented group of international signings they just brought in, led by Maitan, Gutierrez, Pena, Vazquez, Soto, and Severino…
So, while most of their solid bats are at A+ or lower, Albies, Acuna, Demeritte, and Dustin Peterson could all impact the Braves roster very soon. Plus, Acuna and Albies, and Demeritte to a lesser extent, are all three slated to become high impact players, once they make it to the show.
The end of their rebuild is in sight, but the Braves just aren’t there yet…They will need some of their young arms to really step up next season, and they need to acquire an everyday, solid 3B to hold down the fort until Demeritte comes to town.
I agree with ‘all the braves fans complaining about too many pitching prospects’…the braves development of top notch pitching has not been effective for a very long time. So it seems their solution is to keep drafting and keep trading for more and more prospects until someone hopefully sticks.
Yes our offense has been really good this season but it’s been piece-milled together and will be gone in no more than 2 years. When and If these prospects make it they’re gonna turn around on the mound and see who? So far just Inciarte and Freeman. They’re lack of emphasis on offense will catch up and all this pitching potential will go to waste.
At the very least they will also see Swanson and Albies up the middle as well. Both should be at least average offensive contributors
Are we really calling Kyle Wright a prospect? I say give him next spring training and he’ll force his way into the rotation. Along with Newcomb
I guess I should clarify that of all our needs (offense) you could say that 3b, c, and lf and rf are needing upgrades. you have two cornerstone franchise changing players getting ready to hit the open market. I know chances of getting both are slim to none but we do have a lot of young talent coming up and quite a few guys here( Freddie, ender, swanson, folty, julio,) that will be here awhile to build around. I would prefer to have harper to put in the lineup with Freddie those two could put up 100 homers and 250 rbi together
Don’t understand why the Braves would pay over slot for Wright. He has no leverage in the negotiations.
He is a junior and can go back to Vandy!
Also if they don’t sign him they lose their slot money and besides waters the draft wasn’t very impressive
He signed with an agent, so he is no longer eligible to return to amateur ball. The Braves lose none of the rest of their drafted players, just the slot money for Wright. The messed up big time.
Chances are the braves worked out the deal ahead of time, and he agreed to tell the teams above the braves that he wouldn’t sign for less than that. That’s win win. He’s guaranteed x, gets what he deserves for the talent he has, and the braves have the stability to know that if he Fell to them they were guaranteed to sign him
He deserves more money than Kris Bryant?
he might… I mean, did we honestly know how good Kris Bryant would be when he was drafted? no… but this is the time value of money at it’s best.
The teams ahead of the Braves had slots of $7 million and more for the pick so they did not pass on him for money other then Minnesota that wanted an player for a big underslot