Atlanta Braves to Break The Bank In International Signings

Atlanta Braves to Break The Bank In International Signings

It’s been a pretty well-known fact that the Braves plan to blow their international signing budget to pieces beginning 2, July.  Two weeks ago Alan look at the investigation into international signings by MLB and followed that by  looking at the Braves leaked international signing targets.

Today Ben Badler at Baseball America posted his latest preview (subscription required) in the way he hears the signings will go and added detail about what they might cost.

Putting Numbers with the Names

The Braves begin the period with a $4,766,000 bonus pool in this years draft for international amateur players defined as those under 23 years of age and having less than three years of professional experience.

While the money is set forth in slots teams can spend it anyway they want as long as they don’t exceed the total of their draft pool. The penalties  are slightly different this year than they were last.

• All overages are taxed at 100 percent.
• Bust your bonus pool by 5 to 10 percent and the team cannot sign a player for more than $500K in the 2017-18 draft period
• Bust your bonus pool by 10 to 15 percent and the team can’t sign a player for more than $300K in the 2017-18 draft period
• Bust the pool by more than 15 percent and the team can’t sign a player for more than $300K in either the 2017-18 or the 2018-19 draft period

Teams are allowed to trade for slots to add money to their allocated pool but may not increase it by more than 50 percent of the original amount; in the Braves case they could theoretically add an additional $2,383,00 to take their available pool to $7,149,000.

Next: How big is the check going to be?