The Royals will have the largest bonus pool of any team in baseball for this summer’s amateur draft, MLB.com’s Jim Callis writes. Clubs were informed earlier this week about the size of their draft pools, as well as the slot values for each pick that falls within the draft’s first 10 rounds, plus the Competitive Balance rounds (for smaller-market teams) and compensatory rounds for teams that lost qualifying offer-rejecting free agents. Kansas City has selections in both of those extra rounds, with a pick (the draft’s 40th overall selection) in Competitive Balance Round A and two compensatory picks (33rd and 34th overall) obtained when Lorenzo Cain signed with the Brewers and Eric Hosmer signed with the Padres.
The Royals have $12,781,900 in total to spend within their draft bonus pool, placing them just ahead of the Rays ($12,415,600) and Tigers ($12,414,800). Detroit owns the first overall pick in the draft, which comes with a recommended slot price of $8,096,300. Be sure to check out Callis’ piece for the full rundown of slot prices and the order of the draft’s first 10 rounds, though the draft order could still potentially be shifted if any of the Competitive Balance Round picks are traded. These are the only such draft picks that are eligible to be dealt, and they can only be dealt once the regular season has started.
Here’s more from around the AL Central…
- Brayan Pena is still hopeful of continuing his playing career, though Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire told reporters (including MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery) that the catcher is also operating in a semi-coaching capacity. Pena signed a minor league deal with Detroit in January but no longer has a spot at the Triple-A level after the Tigers’ signing of Jarrod Saltalamacchia. If Pena can’t find a playing opportunity elsewhere, he’ll transition into working with prospects at extended Spring Training camp and for the Tigers’ Gulf Coast League team. The 36-year-old Pena is a veteran of 12 Major League seasons, hitting .259/.299/.351 over 1950 career PA from 2005-16 while mostly working in a backup catching capacity.
- Victor Reyes and Jose Iglesias both came up worse for wear after the two Tigers collided in pursuit of a fly ball during the fifth inning of today’s game. Reyes suffered a laceration in his forearm that caused him to leave the game and required eight stitches to close, while Iglesias suffered soreness in both his ankle and calf (MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery was among those who reported the injury updates.) Both players will be re-evaluated tomorrow. It was a tough beginning to Reyes’ big league career, as the Rule 5 pick was making his Major League debut in the second half of Detroit’s double-header with the Pirates.
- “If the Indians were a high school team, this would be their senior year,” Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes, acknowledging that this might be the Tribe’s best chance at a championship given how many key players are scheduled for free agency after the season. Andrew Miller, Michael Brantley, Cody Allen, Lonnie Chisenhall, and Josh Tomlin are just a few of the prominent names set to hit the open market, and re-signing some or even any could be difficult given Cleveland’s small-market realities. Despite this, Miller believes that “from an organization standpoint, I don’t think a window is closing” since the Tribe still has the likes of Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, and much of their rotation returning. “There’s a track record here for the way they do things….The way they develop players, the way they prepare them, as long as you have Tito (Terry Francona) at the helm, they’re going to be good,” Miller said.
Tribe should be jettisoning a few guys after this season. Top of my list is Chisenhall.
Try to re-sign Miller and Allen. Main priorities. Maybe a left-handed starting pitcher like Brooks Raley who is also a Free Agent after this season. He should be cheap and controllable; he could be like what Andrew Albers was for the Mariners last year.
I don’t think that committing 20-25% of the payroll to two relief pitchers is going to be feasible. Not without some other significant subtractions elsewhere. Arbitrations will be adding up quickly
No way they can afford what either will be able to command, considering what teams have been paying for relievers. But I am hopeful Allen might give a reasonable number that they can afford.
Hoping miller goes back to Yankees next year.
Who in the world cares about Chisenhall, Brantley or Tomlin? Those guys are not a key part of the Indians team… their entire core is locked up for quite a while (Lindor, Ramirez, Kluber, Carrasco, Bauer, Zimmer etc). As long as they shore up the pen again next winter theres no reason to think they won’t be good for another 3-4 years. Stop with this clickbait nonsense.
Keep in mind this was based on Paul Hoynes opinion. The saying “take it with a grain of salt” comes to mind. Just ask Indians’ players what they think of Hoynes.
Didn’t they get pissed odd when they pretty much lost two of their three best players and he wrote them off like pretty much everybody outside of Cleveland did. I don’t think they should be holding a grudge over a guy who made a pretty realistic but wrong prediction.
Yeah they destroyed him over it. I didn’t think the season was over when Salazar and Carrasco got hurt like he did but I also didn’t expect them to get by texas before they fell apart in the ALDS. It wasn’t crazy to think the 1 4 and 5 starters would struggle against other teams top 3 starters.
“AL Central Notes: Draft Pools, Royals, Pena, Reyes, Iglesias, Tribe” not clickbait based on the title. Brantley, Chisenhall and Tomlin are complimentary pieces.
I agree that any thoughts that the Indians’ window is closing are pretty far-fetched, but Chisenhall, Tomlin, and (when healthy) Brantley are still very important pieces to have. You can’t take them for granted.
Shane Bieber should be ready to be in the rotation before too long and he could potentially replace Tomlin, but finding ways to replace an already-thin outfield might be tough unless Greg Allen can keep developing and Tyler Naquin can really turn a corner. Either way though, they’re definitely losing a lot of talent.
I think we will probably see Beiber going up and down in 19 and 20 as the 6th starter depending on the Salazar/Merritt situation. Both him and McKenzie will be full time starters by 21 with Clevenger and Kluber in his final year.
I really think Salazar is destined to be a reliever cause I don’t think he can handle a starters work load. Chisenhal could potentially be resigned if he doesn’t price himself out of the teams price range. Stay or go it still leaves the all lefty issue in the outfield. Tomlin will be gone after the year just no room for him with all the young pitchers.
It’s alot of tough decisions to make after the year but there is enough talent in the minors to keep this team a contender until at least 2023 if the players projected to be good MLB players become what is expected of them.
I think Bieber could potentially debut later this season and potentially serve as the top depth option until he and McKenzie are ready to be up for good.
I agree that they’ll be fine and that they have enough interesting prospects to remain competitive for a while though, especially since they’ve shown an ability to make productive players out of guys who weren’t always heralded as minor leaguers.
I think there’s a pretty good chance I’m looking too much into this, but does anyone else think it’s interesting that Miller says “they’re” going to be good instead of “we’re” going to be good?
I’m sure he’s still interested in coming back, but he’s already talking like he’s not a member of the team anymore.
I think with the way he was using it here he was meaning the organization will be in good shape because management and the core players that are under control. So he thinks the organization will be able to figure it out and either resign or find the right players next year.. He is probably like most players and only worrying about the season and not where he will be next year.
I believe he is also the players union rep for Cleveland so perhaps to that alters his tone.
errr…perhaps that alters his tone, I should say.
Pena should just transition into a full time coach. I remember watching him play maybe ten games with the cardinals because one year he slipped on a step out around 157 games the next year he played another 5 games and missed another 157 games. That’s over 300-400 games he missed within two years. But if he can stay healthy than go right ahead and have him play but make sure he doesn’t slip on another step.
Since the rest of the AL Central other than the Twins is rebuilding to one extent or another, I think Cleveland will be okay for another year or two. Unless the AL Central does what the NL East did last year and have every team just give the division title to the Nats before the season started.
The White Sox are going to be really good in a year or two if everything goes as planned. The Indians have this and maybe next year to be contenders, then it’s back to rebuilding for a couple years before they are back in contention. As long as Francona is manager, they’ll be respectable.
Lol. I’m pretty sure the mets didn’t plan to give them the title and have every pitcher on the team go down.
If the relievers’ market continues to be strong next winter I think both Allen and Miller will both sign sizeable contracts elsewhere, but the question remains: will CLE extend the QO to either of them? With Tomlin’s penchant for giving up the long ball he’d be a good back of the rotation option in a pitchers park like Petco. I don’t see CLE trying to keep him. Chisenhall’s market will be flat due to his inconsistency and injury issues, so Tribe could keep him on a 1 or 2 year contract at about a $4M AAV plus incentives, though there will be better options available. It’s really difficult to fathom what Brantley’s market will be. If he has another injury-riddled season he could probably expect only 1-year offers next winter. If he has a monster season he might be looking at 2 or 3 year offers, but either way he’ll still be seen as injury prone and probably not a wise investment for the Tribe at any price.