Baseball America has the bonus pool numbers for the 2023-24 International Signing period, which begins on January 15, 2024 and runs through December 15, 2024. First-time eligible players for that signing class will be ones who turned 16 years old between September 1, 2022 and August 31, 2023.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are one of six teams who will have the maximum bonus pool in 2023-24. It’s a hard cap amount that allows trading for more space, as well as signing players for under $10,000, who don’t count against the cap.
The Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland and the Pirates all have $7,114,800.
A tier of eight teams will be allowed to spend $6,520,000. That group includes the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds.
That’s followed by eight teams at $5,925,000, four teams (including Chicago Cubs and St Louis Cardinals) at $5,152,200 and four teams at $4,652,200.
This news goes well with the announcement late last night that the Pirates have the highest bonus pool in the 2023 draft. The combo of bonus pools means that the Pirates will have more to spend on amateur talent than any other team in baseball over the next year.
It also pairs well with news we broke today about the Pirates being linked to a third 2023-24 international signing from Panama.
