Over the weekend, Major League Baseball announced the draft bonus pools for each team and the slot amounts for each pick in the top ten rounds. The Pittsburgh Pirates will have the 11th highest bonus pool amount.
The Pirates don’t make their first selection until 18th overall in the first round, but they have a compensation pick at 37th overall for not signing Gunnar Hoglund last year, and a competitive balance pick in the 72nd spot, so that helped push them up to the 11th highest bonus pool. The total bonus pool for the Pirates is $9,944,000, though they will go over that amount if they sign all of their early picks.
The bonus pool is the total slot amounts for the first ten rounds only. Teams can exceed it by 5% without getting a major penalty (they pay an overage tax, but don’t lose draft picks). Every pick after the tenth round has a $125,000 slot amount, which isn’t included in the bonus pool. The Pirates could spend up to $14,191,200 this year without losing a draft pick, though the actual figure will be lower because they won’t sign all 42 picks and won’t need to pay slot to every pick after the tenth round.
The Pirates originally had a $10,390,400 bonus pool last year. That number dropped when they were unable to sign Gunnar Hoglund. If you don’t sign a pick in the top ten rounds, you lose that slot bonus as well, which lowers your total bonus pool.
The 18th overall pick has a value of $3,481,300 this year. That’s an increase of $132,000 over the same spot last year. The 37th overall pick is worth $1,999,300 this year, which is $75,800 more than in 2018. The Pirates make their second round selection at 57th overall and that has a $1,243,600 value, giving them three picks worth seven figures.
Here are the rest of the top ten pick values:
72nd overall: $870,700
3rd round: $610,800
4th: $460,000
5th: $343,300
6th: $263,700
7th: $206,500
8th: $168,500
9th: $152,300
10th: $143,900
