NEWSLETTER
I’ll admit that the upcoming June Amateur draft has fallen off my radar a bit – the wacky offseason, Yu Darvish signing, Opening Day excitement, etc. had taken over my immediate field of view – but it really shouldn’t have.
This year, the Cubs have a much better draft position than they’ve had in recent years – from the number of top picks, to their available bonus pool – especially for a team that just went to the NLCS for the third straight year. The full rundown of bonus pools and draft slots is now out, and you can see the full nitty gritty here at Baseball America.
First and foremost, the Cubs overall bonus pool this season is $7,491,700, which is the 20th most in baseball, even though their first pick doesn’t come until No. 24. Moreover, it’s about $400,000 more than the Cubs had to work with last year, despite the fact that the Cubs had two first round picks.
Here are the rankings for all the slots (NL Central bolded):
- Royals $12,781,900
- Tigers $12,414,800
- Rays $12,402,600
- Giants $11,747,500
- Reds $10,887,600
- White Sox $10,589,900
- Pirates $10,390,400
- Padres $9,650,000
- Mets $9,580,900
- A’s $9,531,500
- Indians $9,122,500
- Cardinals $9,096,600
- Phillies $8,858,500
- Orioles $8,754,400
- Marlins $8,636,200
- Braves $8,267,300
- Blue Jays $7,982,100
- D-backs $7,658,700
- Mariners $7,555,200
- Cubs $7,491,700
- Rangers $7,356,000
- Angels $6,984,400
- Rockies $6,846,700
- Twins $6,705,500
- Brewers $6,572,600
- Yankees $6,089,100
- Red Sox $5,699,000
- Nationals $5,582,900
- Astros $5,467,300
- Dodgers $5,265,800
The value of the Cubs’ first round pick (#24) has been set at $2,724,000. Of course, their total bonus pool is much higher, because they also own a second round pick (63rd overall, $1,035,000), a compensation pick for Jake Arrieta (77th overall, $775,100), a compensation pick for Wade Davis (78th overall, $762,900), and a third round pick (98th overall, $570,000) in the top 100, alone. As you can see, that means that they can actually spend more in the draft than – for one example – the Milwaukee Brewers, who missed the postseason entirely.
For an extreme contrast, the Cubs’ first pick in the 2016 draft came at No. 104 and their total bonus pool that season was the lowest in baseball at $2,245,100.
Also note: teams can exceed their bonus pool by up to 5% before incurring loss-of-pick penalties, and the Cubs pretty much always go up to that 5% limit. So the amount they can actually spend is getting close to $8 million.
Here is the full slate of Cubs picks and associated signing bonus slot value:
- 1st Round, 24th, $2724,000
- 2nd Round, 63rd, $1,035,000
- Comp. Pick (Arrieta), 77th, $775,100
- Comp. Pick (Davis), 78th, 762,900
- 3rd Round, 98th, $570,000
- 4th Round, 128th, $426,100
- 5th Round, 158th, $317,000
- 6th Round, 188th, $245,600
- 7th Round, 218th, $192,500
- 8th Round, 248th, 159,100
- 9th Round, 278th, $145,100
- 10th Round, 308th, $137,600
That’s a whole lot of money to play with, and plenty of picks to spend it on. I’m sure Cubs SVP of Scouting and Player Development Jason McLeod is licking his chops.
