Baseball America has released the 2013 International bonus estimates for each Major League team. The Pittsburgh Pirates ended up spending an estimated $2.58 M, which ranked 20th in the majors. Originally I wrote that this number had exceeded their $2.426 M bonus pool in 2013-14. However, the bonuses were just for the 2013 season, and included bonuses for the 2012-13 signing period. It appears the figures went along with Ben Badler’s article today, talking about how international spending was up in 2013, despite the new limits to restrict spending.
If the Pirates go over their bonus pool by more than 5%, they would be subject to a 75% tax and they would be restricted from spending more than $500 K on any individual player during the 2014-15 signing period. The Pirates don’t usually spend big on individual players, and they have a small bonus pool in 2014-15, so it’s unlikely that this would be a problem. However, right now the entire 2013-14 bonus pool numbers are incomplete, and they haven’t gone over the 5% limit.
