Atlanta Braves first round pick unsigned as deadline looms
By Fred Owens
The Atlanta Braves and first-round selection Carter Stewart have yet to agree on a signing bonus and rumors suggest they may not.
Jim Callas reported in his latest post that the Atlanta Braves and first-round pick Carter Stewart have yet to agree on a signing bonus. Th sticking point appears centered around a wrist injury Stewart suffered mid-April.
In a story for USA Today, Stewart explained what he considers a minor incident.
"“I may not get to hit much after high school. . . (and) don’t know if I’ll be hitting much more this season. The other day, I swung too hard and had a little bit of a wrist issue.”"
Since the Brady Aiken incident, teams are now allowed to ask for medical records before making their selections but they may only conduct a physical after they formally make the selection. According to Callis, that’s when things changed.
"A wrist injury . . . .created concerns for the Braves after they viewed the results of his post-Draft physical."
That’s when the negotiations began.
The slot
MLB made the slot value for an eighth-round pick this year $4,980,700 or about 60% of the Atlanta Braves total pool of $8267,300.
I explained the spending rules and limitations in my draft signing tracker post. Here are the salient points from that post.
". . .(spending) between 0-5% above the total pool (results in) a 75 percent tax on the overage. . .every dollar above the limit costs the Braves $1.75."
MLB’s Draft Tracker shows bonuses totaling $3,315,000 agreed upon by the Atlanta Braves for rounds one through ten so far.
In rounds 11-40, a $125,00 bonus may be paid without penalty. Any amount above that counts against the pool. The Braves agreed to a $25K over-slot bonus for Nolan Kingham, their round 14 picks.
That brings the total bonuses affecting the pool to $3,340,000 leaving $4,927,300 in the pool if penalties are to be avoided. Callis reported the Braves made an offer of $4,000,000 which would leave them enough money to, “. . . make a run at 34th-rounder Zack Hess.”
Update: 2:20PM EDT
Jim Callis revised his post of last night to reflect the Dodgers and Diamopndbacks first round picks saying they would not sign.
The post al changed the rumored Braves offer to Stewart from $4M to “. . . less than half of his pick value.” That would make the offer less than $2.4M.