MLB CBA: Basically Just A Slotting System

It is worded as “If you dont sign your pick, you lose that value of that slow”.

Does that mean if the slot is $2 Million, and you get the pick to sign for $1.5, does the $500k stay available since the pick has signed?

 instead of being drafted or if he doesn’t like the money his draft slot allows then become a free agent to be free to negotiate with any team ?

and the new CBA not only doesn’t fix it, it broke the few things that were actually working right.

Let’s say I am Jose Shortstop, a high school kid with a committment to play for Goodprogram University. The Pirates take me with their Ryan Doumit tweener pick. My agent, B.A. Boraxis, asks for Josh Bell money. The pirates say, “No way Jose. The amateur draft is now a slot machine. Take it or leave it.”

What am I to do? I can go to dear old Goodprogram U for a couple years, but the slot will still be there when I am eligilble to be redrafted. The money difference between a tweener pick and a mid first round pick is probably less than it was before the new CBA.

Wouldn’t I be just as likely, maybe even more likely, to sign now?

I understand how this will hurt the draftees a lot. It will also change the way players are picked. I understand how it will take away a method of drafting the the Pirates have been using. I am not sure that we have completely thought out all the repercussions of the slot. For the draftees, it’s the worst thing since Selig’s birth. For teams like the PBC, it seems like it might only be pretty bad.

it is of no real consolation, because this really does suck, I don’t think the following statement is technically true, at least how I’m reading this..

Bust slot for any pick, and you get a penalty

If the slot for our 1st round pick this coming year is 2.9 million, and the slot for the second round is 1 million (just pulled that number out of my ass), hypothetically the Pirates could sign their first round pick for 3.3 million if they sign their second round pick for only 600,000.

That again isn’t of that much consequence even if it allows for a bit of flexibility.

Now, in a more general sense, what you say Charlie makes sense because it means a team can’t simply blow their pool on two elite guy, and just ignore the majority of their other picks in the first 10 rounds because it’s going to be really hard to find enough guys to go under-slot and to go enough under-slot to provide meaningful money to be allocated elsewhere in order to go “over-slot” say on a sign-ability second-rounder (ala Josh Bell and/or Stetson Allie).

Basically, this sucks.

may be that more college players end up in the 1st 10 rounds with the exceptional few high school players sprinkled in. (i.e. Bundy ).

Once you get to round 11, the free wheeling spending can begin again with the high schoolers is how i take it.

Because all the penalties as i’ve read it apply only to the 1st 10 rounds?

anyone know if the CBA prevents offering incentive-laden contracts. I mean, this came from a tweet from someone writing for mlbtraderumors, so it’s not just my crazy wild-eyed idea.

Look here

Re. draft spending under new CBA: If you have $ & want 2 lure players, guarantee less $ and include lots of $ in EASILY reachable incentives.

Basically, say this system had applied last year. What was gonna keep us from drafting Josh Bell and signing him at slot (say 1 million) then give him a contract giving him 4 million dollars vesting the moment he has 100 PA’s in a season or something.

Would that have even been possible (although there would be no reason to do it since there was no cap) prior to the new CBA?

assuming the incentive loophole is closed (I’m assuming that because the MLB has closed every other hole) I’d argue that the best draft strategy is as follows.

Rather than go depth, go for elite players, probably high school guys in the 2nd and 3rd round. This is going to be risky, and thus why it may be “exploitable” because other teams won’t want to be as risky.

Assuming we have ~8 million (including our current comp pick) for next years draft, I’d draft a mold in player X in rounds 4-10 as well as with our comp pick.

Player X is a college guy. He’s a guy who will probably end up as organizational filler, with the upside of a bench guy if everything clicks. He’s also looking to get drafted around the 30th round instead of the 3rd. As such, he’s looking for a 20K bonus (that may have been 100K in years past, but not anymore). Get a pre-draft deal with that player, and offer him 50K. If we sign all 8 players for around that, you spend about 500K, leaving the Pirates with 7.5 million for their other 3 picks.

Presumably elite talents will be falling left and right. Gobble them up, and add elite players, but not depth, to the system. Last year, 7.5 million would have nearly grabbed George Springer, Henry Owens, and Daniel Norris, and that’s before suppressing prices, which will almost certainly happen.

Then, to add a bit of depth, get a few interesting guys for 100K from rounds 11 on.

I doubt any team tries this, cause a draft class could end up incredibly barren if you don’t sign 2 or all 3 of those elite guys, but I see it as being the best method in the new system.

One theme I’m seeing a lot here is teams making back-room deals with players to get around the rules. Can’t help feeling that this is what we’re going to see in real life.

Here’s a question: how long after you initially sign a player before you can rework the deal? Could, say, the Pirates sign their first round pick to a slot-level deal with the wink-wink promise to rework it a year later?