Unless a highly ranked player drops for some reason and becomes available, a team that drafts in the lower third of the first round has use its limited draft pool strategically to get the best prospects for the dollar.
Where the Braves Spent Their Bonus Pool and Why
MLB allocated a draft bonus pool of $9,081,100 for the Braves to spend in the first ten rounds. They could spend it in any way they wanted as long as they signed all of their first-round picks, and didn’t exceed their total pool by more than 5%. Before you reach for the calculator, the extra 5% meant spending an absolute max of $9,535,155 of their first 10 selections.
Pre-draft interviews influence draft picks
The Braves were widely expected to take a pitcher with their first pick, and Gage Wood (18 by BA) was the name I heard most often, but Atlanta selected Tate Southisene. Why?
The club spoke with each player of interest to determine the bonus they were expecting. We know that the Braves had a $3,983,900 slot for round one. Wood signed with the Phillies for $3,000,000, and the Braves decided to select two players of relatively equal quality instead.
Money well spent by the Braves
The club signed Tate Southisene (43 by BA) at 22, and followed that in round two with Alex Lodise (28 by BA) at 60, for roughly $60,000 less than the money slotted for the 22nd pick.
Players who are invited and attend the combine must receive at least 75% of the slot value. MLB assigned a $796,000 slot value to Atlanta’s third-round pick, but the Braves were able to save $597,000 and sign Cody Miller for $297,500 because he wasn’t invited to the draft combine.
The Braves used the money saved from those picks and picks at the back end of the first ten rounds to two players.
Briggs McKenzie was expected to go to college if he didn’t get first-round money. MLB gave the club $588,900 for the fourth round, but the Braves gave McKenzie his first-round money, $2,997,500.
Fourth round selection Dixon Williams signed for $497,500, $42,200 under-slot, and when Atlanta used the money they saved to offer Conor Essenburg $1,197,500, which was $758,900 over slot, he decided to postpone college for a while as well.
Atlanta's draft picks for rounds 6-10 with bonuses
Rounds six through 10 were all under-slot signings.
- Landon Beidelschies signed for $297,500, $41,400 under slot
- Zach Royse signed for $197,500, $67,900 under slot
- Carter Lovasz signed for $7,500, $211,200 under slot
- Logan Braunschweig signed for $2,500, $196,700 under slot
- Kade Woods signed for $2,500, $186,100 under slot
Players in rounds 11-20 could sign for a maximum of $150,000. Any amount over that counted against the draft pool for rounds 1-10.
Colin Daniel, Jay Woolfolk, Logan Forsythe, Mathieu Curtis. Dallas Macias, Nico Wagner, and Brody Fower received $150,000, while Aiven Cabral, Ryan Heppner, and Hayden Friese received $100,000.
That’s a Wrap
The Braves spent $10,767,500 to sign the 21 players drafted and received a lot of value for it. Alex Lodise looks like a player who’ll move quickly through the system, and Cody Miller is a plus runner and effective base stealer with excellent bat-to-ball skills.
As I wrote a few days ago, the Braves have also been active in signing undrafted free agents. Since I wrote that, they signed four more UDFAs, including one ranked by BA and one who just missed. I’ll write about those next time.