Let’s check in on some details regarding recent amateur draft signees.
- The Dodgers have agreed to a deal with fourth-round pick Carson Taylor, tweets Jim Callis of MLB.com. The former Virginia Tech catcher will receive a $400K bonus, just shy of the #130 pick’s $434,400 slot value, Callis adds. Taylor, a draft-eligible sophomore, hit .290/.389/.413 with 20 walks against 21 strikeouts as a freshman in the ACC in 2019. He was off to a fantastic start in mostly non-conference play this spring before the college baseball season was cancelled. Baseball America, who named Taylor the #219 draft prospect, lauded the switch-hitter’s plate discipline and power from the left side.
- Tigers fourth-round pick Gage Workman will come in at $1MM, Callis also reports. That’s well above the #102 pick’s $571,400 slot value. As Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs had previously suggested, that reflects Workman’s ample leverage as a young-for-the-class college junior. The toolsy, switch-hitting infielder played his college ball at Arizona State.
Tigers have gone above slot with all picks sans Dingler who inked for exact slot. Should be interesting to see how Torkelson’s negotiations unfold, especially given that he’s a Boras client
If Boras decides to be difficult, I wonder if the Tigers just say no and take their pick next year? The same applies to Wells and the Yankees.
That would be an absolutely ridiculous thing for the Tigers to do.
For sure. Tigers aren’t gonna lose any of this years limited picks.
Boras could advise his clients not to take the $100,000 and wait until next year. That is why the Yankees could punt the draft and the Tigers could lose Torkelson.
He could. But Tork loses a year of pay and slot money will be the same next year. So he would have to go back to college and get drafted 1-1 again just to have the same slot as this year. All risk and no real reward maneuver, and next year he will have no leverage because he won’t be able to go back to college. He will sign with the Tigers for below slot but it still will be a good amount of money. Daniel Cabrera however can use going back to college to leverage the Tigers for more money. Tigers will end up going over total slot and pay a penalty.
Not to mention the Tigers (and Yankees) lose the bonus money from that slot, thus they’d have to renegotiate with everyone else and likely wouldn’t be able to sign at least one of their other picks.
Not even on the table as a hypothetical scenario.
Looking at this from a Yankee perspective, losing the first and ( or) fourth round pick may very well happen. The fourth rounder, Way has an offer from LSU, and he might get more next year, and the first rounder Wells has heard the Mauer comparisons ( and not from Boras), so going back to Arizona makes sense, if he and Boras thinks he could be a top 10 pick. Do I think they will lose both? No but losing one or the other ( likely Way) is very possible.
If Tork holds out, he can go back to ASU and break the college home run record. I doubt he will be number 1 next draft though. Vanderbilt righty Kumar Rocker will probably go number 1. Vandy lefty Jack Leiter will challenge for number 2.
In addition, there is absolutely no scenario where a team would do that. That’s basically throwing a nuke into the relationship with that player’s agent, upsetting virtually the entire baseball world, and throwing away a year of a kid’s professional career, to gain a little bit more leverage next year.
I can almost guarantee no one who works in baseball is even considering that possibility because they work in baseball and probably want to continue to. Punting a draft pick is a good way to never work in the sport again.
Tigers’ bonus pool $13,325,700
Bonuses spent 4,325,300
Remaining bonuses 9,000,400
5% over 9,450,420
2 slot values left 9,518,000
The Tigers can not sign both Tork and Cabrera for slot value without incurring a draft pick penalty. They need to total at least $67,580 below full slot values.
The first overall pick almost never gets full slot, but Boras will want to change that. Cabrera should get at least full slot since he was projected quite a bit higher than he was selected.
You just made my point. Maybe the Tigers realized Boras will make it impossible for his clients to sign unless they go well over slot, so they decided to sign Workman instead. The Yankees do have the 5% overage that they can use on Wells or Way, but unless their third rounder comes well under slot, they will likely be unable to sign both. I would even say losing both is more likely then signing both.
Tork $8.25 sets highest bonus total.
Cabrera $1.2 , still above slot value.
Total $9.45, just under Maximum without losing a draft pick.
Is it not a 5% overage on the entire draft pool? Meaning they actually had 13,991,565 to work with without incurring a penalty.
That would give them 9,666,265 to work with if so.
Yes, it’s 5% of the entire pool. They will have no problem signing everyone. I would assume Boras would want Tork to get a record signing bonus… even though I’m not sure he’s better than Adley Rutschman who signed for $8.1 mil. Rutschman has great potential to be atop hitter but he’s also an excellent defender behind the plate. Tork may have more power… but other than that, Rutschman has him beat.
“that reflects Workman’s ample leverage as a young for the class college junior.”
Ahhh yes, to be reflected as a young.
Maybe Anthony’s keyboard lacks a hyphen, as in “young-for-the-class junior.”
Yeah, that’s what I meant. Thanks for the heads up
It is interesting that the Yankees have not signed any of their picks ( and Wells ( Boras client), and Way ( LSU commit) are considered difficult signs). I wonder if they will actually decide to punt the draft?
Now I see why they haven’t signed any UDFA’s
Tigers did not cut one minor leaguer during this pandemic. THAT is the big reason they did not sign any UDFA yet. And they may not sign any. At 20K a piece, money isn’t the issue. Room in the system is. Only so much room for talent in a system and with the likely cut in teams in the MiLB coming they will have to cut some guys loose this fall.
An UDFA that didn’t get inked in the 5 round draft could have far more upside than those in the system drafted in ay the 33rd round. Worth the $20k bonus.
No player is going to refuse a few 100k less when getting $5M+. They’ll all sign – it’s a game. Now $50k or less, sure… they hasv easily walk away if in HS or early college
Was always going to be about Beeter and Vogel with LAD-
They got quite a bit of extra cash to land them. Really like both of them. A speedy CF in the system feels like a great fit here with Vogel if they can keep him away from UCLA