We’ll keep track of the latest amateur draft signings here…
- The Cardinals announced the signing of outfielder Alec Burleson, whom they drafted 70th overall. He’ll earn $700K, quite a bit less than the $906,800 value of his pick, according Jim Callis of MLB.com. The Cards landed the choice they used on Burleson as compensation for the departure of outfielder Marcell Ozuna in free agency. An East Carolina University product, Burleson topped out as FanGraphs’ 108th-ranked prospect before the draft. Burleson was a successful first baseman and left-handed pitcher in college, but he’s regarded as a much better hitting prospect, MLB.com notes.
- The Mets have signed third-round pick Anthony Walters for $20K, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com tweets. It’s a stunningly low amount for a player whose pick, No. 91, was said to be worth $647,300. The total Walters received only matches the maximum sum an undrafted player can get this year. Walters, a former San Diego State shortstop, didn’t rank among Baseball America’s top 500 before the draft. However, Mayo observes that Walters brings “good hands” as a defender and “sneaky pop” at the plate.
- The Padres have inked fourth-rounder Levi Thomas for $80K, far below the $533K slot value of the 109th pick, Jim Callis of MLB.com reports. The right-hander from Troy “has an impressive history of throwing strikes and his fastball seems to have qualities that teams love,” Baseball America wrote in ranking Thomas as the 224th-best prospect in the 2020 class.
- The Nationals have reached a $20K agreement with fourth-round catcher Brady Lindsly, per Callis. The University of Oklahoma product, who was not one of BA’s top 500 prospects, did not expect to get drafted.
Wow…a buyer’s market these days. What does this say about the money the undrafted guys are going to get? $20,000 looks like a ceiling rather than a floor.
$20,000 is the ceiling, teams are not allowed to give more to undrafted FAs
What I meant was for drafted guys. Why would they take that when they would get it even if they went undrafted? My guess is there won’t be very many undrafted signings.
In a regular season teams would sign 20-30 players from the draft of 40+ rounds. I bet most teams won’t sign more than 10 this year. I see MLB spending more $$$ on the Latin FA’s from D.R. or Venezuela.
Could this be harbinger of things to come? The MLB draft goes the way of the NBA and NFL and makes 5-10 rounds the norm?
With you he slashing of Minor Leagues I certainly think so.
Walters is a clear underslot guy if you look at the numbers. i wouldnt expect most guys in a normal year to take that little in the 3rd round.
I thought about the international market too. When some of these teams don’t even TRY to draft/sign a legitimate prospect in a 5-round draft, I can’t see why they would bother trying to sign international prospects…on the other hand, an incredible opportunity is presenting itself to the teams who wish to improve their chances of future success.
I think we are going to see a real separation of franchises here. Any owner/GM with half a brain will take advantage of this situation and load up on talent, while these other fools will allow their teams to fall behind in order to save a rather insignificant amount of money.
The third round pick the Mets signed for $20K has a .222 lifetime average in NCAA baseball. That’s not a typo. They probably had a prior agreement. The guy is barely a prospect and is probably glad to even be given a chance.
Well said
Uh huh. the Mets intentionally drafted a player who would sign for a very small bonus so they could shift extra slot money to sign Ginn who will ask for 600k to 1m over slot.
What most people are missing is this demonstrates how financially strapped the Mets are. They use that pick for Walter’s because they have no intention on spending $650k on the pick. They use the pick and if the guy refuses to sign the most he can sign for is $20k with another team. In the past he could have said no to the Mets and if a Sr., been available to any team as an undrafted FA..and get actual fair market value.
That’s not why they picked a cheap guy with that pick. They want the $630 to pay earlier picks who will use going to or staying in college as a way to leverage more money than their slot value. It’s how they got Matthew Allan last year in the third round. He was a first or second round talent but planned to go to University of Florida so he had limited incentive to sign for the third round slot value while his college plans meant that no one wanted to risk taking him earlier and essentially losing the pick for the year if he doesn’t sign. it’s also why they haven’t signed any of the earlier guys, Crow-Armstrong and Ginn. They needed Walters signed first to free up his slot money for those others. “Cheap” is if a team doesn’t use all of their allotted money. That’s not what’s going on here.
That’s not how it works Ted. If he didn’t sign with the Mets, he wouldn’t be a FA. His only recourse would be to go back to college for his senior year.
I dont think you understand how this all works.
I was wondering if the guy had an agent. 20K in the 3rd round when slot was 647k and change. He couldn’t get 100k out of that? And instead settled for the undrafted ceiling? Something doesn’t make sense here… I know that teams feel players out before the draft as far as numbers and maybe he’s happy to be a 3rd round pick in name but he isn’t paid like one. Thats wayyy too low…
I think the thought process for the Nats, Padres and Mets was to draft a player that isn’t going back to school that you didn’t want to chance signing else where. They liked them and wanted to reserve their rights, and then used the $20k as the standard for them ($80k for the Padres). Then that gives them extra money to woo players who can go back to school to sign.
My guess anyway.
The Padres 4th and 5th round picks were money savers. I never actually expected them to even try to sign Levi Thomas. All of the Padres extra money is going to go to sign Cole Wilcox, the 1st round talent they drafted in the 3rd round. This is not a surprise.
Walters was at San Diego State
You’re right. Fixed it. Thank you.
clearly Mets reached here to recoup money for Crow-Armstrong. knowing that though id have put up more of a fight to get a bit more if i was Walters.
Ginn will ask for $600k to $1m over slot.
He couldn’t fight for more..if he didn’t sign with the Mets the most he could get was the same $20k by another team.
He had absolutely no leverage.
It is an indication of how financially troubled the team is. This was their strategy.
Again that’s not how this works. If a player doesnt sign they do not automatically get to sign with another team. He would have to re-enter the draft again next season.
I mean, seriously… Nearly every first rounder would decline and want to become a FA, have teams bid for them and wind up signing somewhere for 3x above what the drafting team would’ve been allowed to pay. What would be the point of the draft if Torkelson said, no thanks, I’ll pass. I’d rather sign with the Dodgers?
Wow. So in a year where the draft is only 5 rounds, the Mets, A’s, and Nationals all decided to “waste” at least one of their extremely limited picks on a player who wasn’t projected to be drafted at all, just to save some money. Brilliant idea….set your organizations back and choose to be at a competitive disadvantage!
I seriously cannot understand the logic being displayed by MLB owners right now. It’s like some of them don’t even care about the future of their billion dollar franchises. How does a team like Washington justify handing out multiple $150+ million dollar free agent contracts in recent offseasons and then opting not to select a legitimate prospect just to save a (comparatively) measly $500,000-$1,000,000 this one?
Baseball is becoming such a freakin joke and I’m almost to the point of being embarrassed to be a fan of it.
You do realize they did it to give more money to other players, right? The Nationals in particular are going overslot for their 2nd and 3rd pick. That money has to come from somewhere. Its a tactic used by many teams every year. Theyre going to spend their full allotment. Theyre not spending less overall by going underslot on a guy.
I guess I’d rather take my chances with 2 or 3 decent prospects rather that putting all my eggs in one basket. Strength is in numbers when it comes to prospects, and if you only have 5 chances you better make the most of it. Punting one or more of the picks completely doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me in this format. We’ll see if they end up spending their entire allotments or not.
Padres drafted 3 1st round talents.
Hassell,Lange (who experts agreed would have gone higher had there been more film), and Wilcox.
To do so they drafted guys lower than projected to save money. Hassell, Caissie, Thomas, and Haynes
Caissie was ranked 95th by perfect game
Thomas 224th by baseball America.
Haynes not sure where but wasn’t among the top 200 by mlb website.
It’s common to do so.
its not money, its conserving money to sign another guy overslot. these owners may be cheap, but no one is going underslot just to save a few thousand overall.
Nope. You clearly do not understand how teams move slot money around to sign the best talent available.
You are clearly missing the point of the Mets pick.
They are in financial distress and had no intention on spending the $650k.
They pick a kid who they like offer him $20k. He has no leverage whatsoever
If he refuses,he can only sign for $20k with another team.
No. You’re missing it Read the explanations
Yes Wipons are cheap but they’re still going to use every dollar of their draft allowance
TedYazJimEd, that’s just incorrect.
The Mets picked a guy, Ginn, in the second round. He had been picked in 2018 by Seattle but didn’t sign. He wanted first round money comparable to what he turned down from the M’s. He’s reportedly looking for $2M+ this draft, and where he was picked, his slot value is around $1.4M.
What this means, is that the Mets needed to save money on their other picks so they could sign this guy without going over the pool allotment. By signing Walters for $600K under slot value, they now can allot that money to signing Ginn. Their last two picks will also go under slot; for instance they picked a pitcher who had missed most of the past two years with cancer (two separate kinds) with the last pick. He may well sign for $20K as well. Providing the Mets a couple hundred thousand more to spend on Ginn or Crow-Armstrong. It’s not to save the Wilpons money. It’s to draft three guys that with first/second round talent in the first three rounds. They did it last year as well so they could draft Matt Allan in the third when he was clearly a first-round talent.
This is also standard draft maneuvering. As in, most teams try this to some degree each year.
Boy, free agents are going to have a rough offseason–especially if there isn’t a 2020 season.
This could very well be a glimpse of what teams are willing, or unwilling, to spend–and most of the slot money for this year’s draft class is being deferred.
This really could lead to the death of baseball as we know it. If the product is inferior, the income an interest will deteriorate as well. But maybe that’s what needs to happen. Maybe an entire new system with a new commissioner and a reformed union with a new union leader are exactly what baseball needs?
If there is no 2020, 2021 is going to be a mess as well, and the CBA expires after 2021. We could be looking at 3 straight years of more nonesense and nastiness.
Time for some real changes for the sake of the sport.
The latter three players are 22 years old. Not sure what their college eligibility is but they were probably college seniors this season. Even if they received another year of eligibility, they’d really have to breakout to improve their chances of being a top round pick. Looks like they don’t mind being used here to pay other picks over slot.
Padres saving money to sign Cole Wilcox
Between Cole round 1 cba and 2 they need money to do it. Word is they will sign him well above slot, they just need the money.