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Atlanta Braves’ Draft Position Grants the Right to Spend a Lot of Money

By Alan Carpenter

Jul 20, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; First overall pick in the 2015 MLB draft Dansby Swanson looks on after signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. At this point, he has no idea what's to come later! Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 20, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; First overall pick in the 2015 MLB draft Dansby Swanson looks on after signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. At this point, he has no idea what's to come later! Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jul 20, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; First overall pick in the 2015 MLB draft Dansby Swanson looks on after signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. At this point, he has no idea what’s to come later! Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 20, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; First overall pick in the 2015 MLB draft Dansby Swanson looks on after signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. At this point, he has no idea what’s to come later! Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports /

MLB Releases Draft Pool Limits for Teams to Swim in This Summer

Now that all of the off-season free agent dust has settled, final figures are in.  With that, we know the starting point that the Braves will have for spending on new players this Summer:

  • DRAFT POOL:  $12,385,200
  • INTERNATIONAL POOL:  $4,766,000

Of these, the International pool can still change.  The Braves are likely looking for trade partners to permit them to increase that figure by up to 50%.  That means a possible upper limit of $7,149,000.  We’ll check into that a bit later, but first:  the June draft is an interesting topic on its own.  How should the Braves spend those funds?

The Slot Machines

The pool association with the “regular” Rule 4 draft is broken into a ‘slot’ allocation for every pick through the first ten rounds.  These are the recommended bonuses to be paid for each player taken in these round.  For the Braves, then, here’s how their $12,385,200 limit is broken up:

  • ROUND 1, Pick 3.  $6,510,800
  • ROUND 1/supplemental, Pick 40.  $1,616,800
  • ROUND 2, Pick 44.  $1,459,700
  • ROUND 3, Pick 80.  $788,800
  • ROUND 4, Pick 109.  $546,800
  • ROUND 5, Pick 139.  $409,600
  • ROUND 6, Pick 169.  $306,600
  • ROUND 7, Pick 199.  $229,700
  • ROUND 8, Pick 229.  $184,100
  • ROUND 9, Pick 259.  $171,800
  • ROUND 10, Pick 289.  $160,500
  • (different rules exist for Rounds 11+; that’s not part of my topic today)

But just because there are recommendations for each slot, there are no rules for how the money is to be spent – so long as teams don’t exceed their total pool amounts (though the penalties are monetary-only for the first 4.99% of overages).

Accordingly, teams will make a token pick in the 10th round for someone who will sign for something in the $5,000 to $10,000 range.  This gives them a bit of ‘mad money’ to use to bolster the checks of players that are difficult to sign.

But that top pick – #3 in the case of Atlanta – has been the subject of some discussion lately for those near the top of the board.  Ken Rosenthal wondered out loud a couple of days ago whether the ‘tanking’ teams should be penalized in the draft… rather than rewarded.  We’ll look at that on the next slide.

Next: Draft Manipulation 101

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