The Atlanta Braves were hoping to restock the farm system with a big 2022 MLB Draft and they did just that by signing all 22 of their picks.
It’s very common for teams not to sign every pick in a draft. But as the Atlanta Braves look to build back up a farm system that has been depleted through trades and recent graduations, they worked strategically to make sure they were able to sign their entire draft class.
Not only that, they signed five non-drafted prospects as well.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 30, 2022
They were able to do this by taking some high schoolers early in the draft they knew wouldn’t cost a lot.
Owen Murphy, their first-round pick, signed for nearly $1 million under slot value. That created a ton of flexibility later in the draft.
You could argue if that is the right strategy or not. They could have taken a better prospect at 20 and signed them for slot value or little over.
But if the Braves are that confident in Owen, and then are able to get some value picks later in the draft, it could work out.
One of those value picks came in the sixth round when they went over $400,000 over slot for high schooler Seth Keller.
The big ticket item came with Adam Maier who they signed for $1.2 million — nearly $1 million over slot.
Maier doesn’t have a ton of collegiate experience because of injury, but many feel like he has some of the best breaking stuff in this draft. And had he gone back to college for another year he likely goes in the first two rounds.
The one player I thought they wouldn’t have a chance to sign was outfielder Noah Williams.
It’s not always easy to pull high school graduates away from college when they’re drafted late.
They got Williams, and Georgia native Christian Jackson, for $125,000 each.
This will be a very important draft class for the Braves and imperative they hit on a couple of these high school players as there is also a lot of risk in this class.
Now that they’re all signed, hopefully we’ll get to see some of these kids in action this summer and by next year we’ll likely see several move into the team’s top 30 rankings.