Late last night, Chris Cotillo reported that the San Diego Padres had agreed to a four-year deal with James Shields.
Sources: #Padres in agreement with James Shields on four-year deal. Includes club option for fifth season.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) February 9, 2015
The side effect to this deal is that the MLB draft order is now set. Shields was the final free agent to sign who was eligible for draft pick compensation. The Padres had an unprotected pick in the first round, forfeiting the 13th overall selection in this deal. As a result, everyone from picks 14-33 moved up a spot. That grouping including two picks by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who will end up picking 19th and 32nd overall in the first round. The 19th overall pick is their original first round pick, and the 32nd overall pick is the selection they received for losing Russell Martin.
The Pirates also pick 62nd overall in the second round, 96th overall in the third round, and then select every 30 picks in rounds 4-10, starting with pick number 127 in the fourth round.
If we use last year’s draft slot values as a guide, the Pirates will have $6,796,200 to spend in the 2015 draft. This assumes that the draft slots will remain the same. That wasn’t the case last year, as the overall prices increased 1.7%. A similar increase this year would give the Pirates $6,911,735 in their bonus pool.
UPDATE: Baseball America projects a 13% increase, which would put the Pirates at $7,692,588.
The price also assumes the Pirates don’t add any additional picks, like they did last year when they traded Bryan Morris for the 39th overall selection a week before the draft.
Last year the Pirates had $7,063,700 to spend in the draft, despite picking 24th and 39th in the first round and the first compensation round. The key difference was that they received a Competitive Balance pick after the second round, giving them 12 picks in the top ten rounds. They were shut out from a Competitive Balance pick this year, meaning their draft pool will be $256,100 lower, despite picking higher with each of their first two selections. If Baseball America’s big projected increase this year turns out to be a more accurate number, then they will have more than their 2014 totals, although that would be entirely due to the prices going up across the board.
