Jim Callis of Baseball America has two updates on the Draft Bonus Pools for the MLB draft under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Callis first reports that the bonus pool for the top ten rounds is closer to $180 M than the $200 M that was originally reported. He also added that if you don’t sign a pick, you lose his cap value. That means if you don’t sign your first round pick, you can’t use his funds to go over-slot on later round picks.
The second note kills a lot of theories on how to go over-slot on later round players. A lot of the ideas so far centered around signing only a few picks at high prices, and leaving other players unsigned to stay under the overall bonus pool.
