The Braves have emerged victorious from a grievance proceeding filed by the MLB Players Association on behalf of 2018 first-round draft pick Carter Stewart, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman was among those to report. As a result, the Atlanta organization will remain eligible to receive the ninth overall pick in this year’s draft as compensation.
Stewart, a high-school righty out of Georgia, was selected eighth overall — a pick that came with a slot value of just under $5MM. While the expectation was that the sides would line up on a deal, that never came to fruition. It emerged that Stewart’s medical review had turned up a wrist ligament issue that ultimately impacted the team’s valuation.
The grievance, it seems, revolved around the question whether the Braves actually made Stewart an offer of at least 40% of the slot value, as is required for a club to obtain a compensatory pick in the ensuing year’s draft. Evidently, the panel determined that matter in the team’s favor. Bowman says the Braves’ top offer never exceeded $2MM (just over the minimum) after the health issue arose; clearly, Stewart’s camp found that insufficient.
It’s an unfortunate situation for Stewart, of course. He ultimately chose to join the JuCo ranks in hopes of potentially reentering the draft this summer. Things turned out better for the Braves. No doubt, the club would have preferred to sign the player they selected at full health. But they’ll end up with nearly the same pick in the upcoming draft, opening the door to more high-end talent.
MLBTR late to the game
Lol true
They are also late reporting Francisco Arcia signing with the Cubs, and being that baseball-reference pulls from here (I think?) they have not updated their site either. Maddening.
This is why some people just need to find a better hobby.
FYI……free service…
You’d think things like this would be known prior to drafting a player.
Players don’t put themselves in the draft. And how would a team know medical issues before drafting?
There’s no draft declaration in baseball and medical history is private information. So unless the team thought he looked hurt; there’s no way to know until after he gets drafted and submits to a physical.
A kid taken early in the first round has already had preliminary contract talks with the team that plans on selecting him. I’m sure his medicals were asked for, and provided to the team.
Provided medicals are not the same as the team doctors doing the exam.
CrownRocks — Those are primarily just questionnaires; they’re not full blown physicals with MRI’s looking for injuries. That happens after they get drafted and agree to sign.
The players side provides the medical report themselves and is not libel at all for injuries not revealed. The team gets to do their own medical after the fact.
This is good news. The part I couldn’t understand is how in any way Stewart would have been declared a free agent. Even if they offered him nothing he wouldn’t be a free agent.
The rule is that if the team doesn’t offer a draftee at least 40% of slot value, they can be declared a free agent.
I think that’s what happened with Barrett Loux a few years ago, but he might have just been drafted again and I don’t remember off the top of my head
Loux got to become a free agent. I believe his situation was the straw that caused the 40% of slot rule to be implemented.
The borderline criminal actions of the Braves minor and international development personnel should have cost them top round picks for a decade.
Nonsense
Then every team should have lost their first rounders and just start the draft in the 2nd. The Braves were made an example of for other teams to take notice. The Braves FO operated brazenly and burned a ton of bridges in that time, and they deserved what they got. But the kind of stuff they were actually doing had been occurring league-wide for many years. The Braves didn’t invent the concept of “package deals” or greasing the hands of handlers. They were a perfect candidate to make an example of, however.
Not every team. Baltimore would still have their first. July 2nd International Free Agency Violations? Can’t break the rules if you don’t play the game.
That said, you’re spot on. Given what SI had reported about the Dodgers, I’m not sure the Braves were even the worst behaved team. They just were the guys caught when MLB opened its blind eye to the stuff.
Pax;
What’s wrong with a little borderline criminal activity from time to time? The country is built on criminal activity. Our jails are filled with the amateurs, our political offices with the professionals.
Bob Dylan said it:
Steal a little
…… And they throw you in jail
Steal a lot
…… And they make you king
Pax, Yeti summed it up nicely. The Braves were actually very late to the game on the international signing nonsense. It was a known issue and MLB thought they had made an example sufficient enough to stop it when they penalized the Red Sox.
Sadly, the penalty to the Red Sox was laughable so everyone kept doing it. Then, MLB decided to make a new example and really put the fear into teams. Right on queue, an agent that had been making deals for other organizations named the Braves as a recent one and blammo. The sad thing is, multiple people investigated as being a part of it named many other organizations, but only the Braves got penalized. Funny how that worked out.
If anything, you should be fighting for pretty much every team in baseball to receive a similar punishment. What the Braves did was wrong, but in reality, the players all benefited. The top prospects got more money and bench warmers got free money they would not have gotten otherwise because they really just weren’t good enough to get it. The real criminal activity here is that MLB did not want the public to realize how bad things were so they let every other team walk figuring most of the public would not understand the magnitude and just think it was the Braves. Apparently it worked on at least one person..
Pax the Braves have already been made an example of by MLB and paid high enough a price. They weren’t the only team pulling the shenanigans that got them in trouble.
I’ll add the reason why the Braves were the ones chosen to be made into an example is that they already had a deep system and could afford those penalties, so while costly, they would not set the Franchise significantly back in their development.
The number of total draft picks in a given year is regulated by the CBA (take away a draft pick and that’s one less potential future union member), so stripping draft picks is darn near impossible for MLB to do for even 1 year.
So we fired Bridges and Clark for some other reason? Cool.
They were after $200 dollar raises !! each !!
They are dinosaurs who don’t know how to use analytics…Bridges even admitted as much that he was uncomfortable with analytics
The last few drafts show he was doing just fine at evaluating talent.
“uncomfortable with analytics” doesn’t equal “can’t recognize talent”.
As front office free agents in an uncapped sector (Not many left.), I’d be good with my team adding at least one of them. Whichever team that is.
Pax the Pox acting like a moron again
Well this sure isn’t going to help Stewart’s draft stock. Teams might wish to avoid the potential headaches. What even was the point in filing this grievance?
I believe with benefit of becoming a free agent and have the ability to sign with any team, much like Kevin Maitan. Something tells me a rival like WSH will try and draft him and give him overslot money.
There was no benefit of becoming a free agent. It was never going to happen. The only question to answer was did the Braves or did they not offer the requisite 40% of slot? If they did then Carter Stewart never had a chance of winning this. And there’s no way he didn’t know what was offered.
Free agents get to go wherever they like for however much they can get.
Draft picks get one option and have an artificially limited spending capacity
You’d better believe there’s a benefit to being declared a free agent. Might as well take the gamble.
@petrie000 well obviously you’re better off being a free agent than being subject to the draft but Stewart knew what was offered and knew it was at or above that 40% mark so there was never any chance of him winning this one. So no, not might as well take the gamble. All your doing is wasting people’s time and possibly rubbing GM’s the wrong way and hurting your draft stock for 2019.
Well it’s not really anything like the Maitan or Harper’s situations are right now outside of being a free agent. like redrooster said, can you not calculate 40% of know slot value. If your offer fell in that range, you know you’re losing. Sounds like his agent kind of should have known. I had read the slot value was around $4.8mil and the offer was a little over $2mil. I’m no math whiz but that’s more than 40%
You truly are no math whiz. You’re also pretty shoddy at reading comprehension as well.
“Bowman says the Braves’ top offer never exceeded $2MM (just over the minimum) after the health issue arose; clearly, Stewart’s camp found that insufficient.”
I’ll give you a hand here.
Math:
$2mil is exactly 40% of $5mil
Reading comp:
Braves highest offer was not over $2mil.
Analysis:
The Braves never offered him 40% meaninging he had a great case to win.
Going by your attention to detail and utilizing your own reading comprehension, you’re not so great yourself. Slot value isn’t exactly $5mil (and I was a little off in my post). I never mentioned Bowman’s report but everything I read was that it was in the $2mil range or “a little over”. Regardless his agent doesn’t have to guess what the offer was. Or what slot value was. My point being his agent should have been able to determine whether or not 40% was offered. Obviously the offer was 40% or above or they wouldn’t have retained the pick.
@jobusraum9 if you are going to be insulting/condescending, at least know what you are talking about.
The assigned slot value for the Braves’ first rounder last year was $4,980,700. 40% of that is $1,992,280. Bowman says that the Braves’ offer never exceeded $2m. So the Braves offer could have been exactly $2m. It could have been $1,992,280, or the exact minimum to get the draft pick. Or it could have been something like $1,992,282 to protect against the possibility of a clerical error pushing their offer just barely below that 40% mark.
In any event, the Braves clearly offered Stewart 40%. Stewart’s camp obviously knew what was offered, obviously knew what the assigned slot value was and obviously knew what 40% of that was. So Stewart never had any case to win and knew it from the start. If the Braves had never offered him 40% as you said, he would have won. There is no gray area. The Braves either did or didn’t offer 40% and evidently, they did.
He was out of Eau Gallie, Fl., not Georgia
wrist injuries aren’t permanent. braves should have offered him half of slot and let him train in a rookie ball when healthy.
Braves also have plenty of arms and could afford to reroll the pick for a healthier player.
Then they should have taken Nolan Gorman who had been linked to the Braves before the draft.
But we all know the Braves will draft pitcher with all 1st round picks.
“But we all know the Braves will draft pitcher with all 1st round picks.”
Yes sir. Two more pitchers on the way.
The Tomahawk Chop is dead.
you never know what you’re gonna get.
Viz – AA has had a habit of not signing top draft picks. Not signing Stewart wasn’t a surprise. But I wonder if giving 50% would have enticed Stewart to sign.
What makes you think he would have taken that? They obviously offered him 40% based upon this ruling, so he would accept just 10% more?
Methinks they offered him exactly 40%. It sounds like once they found out about the wrist injury they cared more about that #9 pick in 2019 than about Stewart.
Because every wrist injury is the same and you’re a doctor, who examined him?
at his age hardly anything is permanent. but you only have to see the negative aspect only. wannabe.
While wrist injuries may not be permanent, Stewart’s wrist injury was very significant to the Braves. One of main reasons he had such a high ranking with the Braves was the spin-rate (RPMs) he generated. His spin was significantly higher than any current Major League pitcher. The injured wrist made the Braves wonder if the wrist was going to be a reoccurring issue and without that high spin rate, Stewart was not nearly as highly rated to the Braves scouts.
that’s a well informed answer.
Remember when the Astros failed to sign Brady Aiken as a 1/1? They were able to get Bregman the next year at #2. Sometimes this works out.
Yes! Aiken turned down the 5 mil that was negotiated down from 6.5 to sign with Cleveland the next year for 2 mil. 4 years later he is still playing Single A ball and Bregman is Bregman.
Remeber when Astros draft Mark Appel over Kris Bryant? That turned out well too.
That’s why the draft is a big crapshoot.
None of them showed signs of an injury at the physical
Excellent news.
The Braves have already been drilled with punishments in the stateside and international drafts.
I’m happy this worked out, at least.
*Eau Gallie, FL. The same town I live in
I hope Carter Stewart falls to the 12th Pick so the Mets could draft him and have him haunt Atlanta for the next 12-15 years.
Nice slot for a Team that made the playoffs. Maybe that will take away some of the ire from some fan bases that hate on the Cardinals for getting a competitive balance pick every year. lol!
Well it’s compensation for not getting a first rounder in 2018 so it’s not quite the same as getting an extra top 100 draft pick each year like the Cardinals do.
In a way, this is actually preferable than Atlanta signing Stewart. There bonus pool for the first ten rounds now includes the amount of two first round slots, giving them the opportunity to spread more money around. That may help offset some of the talent lost due to the IFA restrictions.
I’d say his “advisors” screwed this up. How do you not educate your client about health issues or how do you not get everything in writing? Does anyone know who represented this kid in the draft? Whoever it was, they should quit for botching this thing.