The MLB Draft is this weekend with the first 4 rounds on Saturday and the last 16 on Sunday. 20 rounds??? Yup. You think that’s crazy? A few years ago, it was 40 rounds and previously it was even more. One thing to know right off, it is nothing like the drafts in the other 3 sports.
Bonus Pool and Slot Values
So you are probably thinking the best players get picked first and so on down the line. Oh no no no, my friend. This ain’t the NBA Draft we’re talking about. This is MLB!1 There’s a strategy to it.
First, each team has a certain pool of money that they can spend on the draft based on every pick in the first 10 rounds having a descending dollar value. Players could sign for more and they could sign for less, and therein lies the strategy. Let me give you an example. In 2025, the Washington Nationals had the #1 pick with a slot value for a little over $11m. Instead of taking consensus #1 prospect Ethan Holiday, they chose high schooler Eli Willits instead. While no slouch himself, Willits signed for an under-slot amount of $8.2m. By going with Willits, they saved nearly $3m in their bonus pool. Holiday ended up getting picked 4th by the Rockies at an OVERSLOT $9m, the highest bonus that year. While the Nats saved money, the Rockies were now in the hole by around $250k. Each team’s bonus pool is below…
Pool for Each Team (CLICK to Expand)
- Pirates: $19,130,700
- Rays: $19,009,300
- White Sox: $17,592,100
- Giants: $17,350,600
- Twins: $16,929,600
- Cardinals: $16,612,300
- Royals: $15,954,000
- Braves: $15,870,800
- Rockies: $15,557,600
- Athletics: $13,840,300
- Astros: $13,712,700
- Diamondbacks: $13,603,100
- Orioles: $13,114,000
- Nationals: $12,278,300
- Marlins: $11,960,100
- Angels: $11,755,400
- Reds: $10,758,500
- Rangers: $10,219,200
- Cubs: $9,644,100
- Padres: $9,479,000
- Guardians: $9,303,700
- Tigers: $9,165,100
- Red Sox: $8,219,200
- Mariners: $8,218,200
- Brewers: $8,042,900
- Phillies: $7,773,000
- Yankees: $7,342,800
- Mets: $6,730,900
- Blue Jays: $5,543,100
- Dodgers: $3,951,900
Second, these kids have leverage so teams better save their pennies. What kind of leverage? Well, a great education of course! High schooler seniors can break the hearts of professional scouts simply by going to college. With NIL money now involved, signing kids out of HS is even harder. If they do choose college, they are locked into that choice for 3 years though as they won’t be draft eligible again until after their junior years. Those juniors can come back for their senior years, but they are old and gross by that point. Everyone but college seniors have until July 27th to sign or the team loses their rights. Not signing a drafted player picked in the top 10 rounds means you lose their slot value.2 When a team picks a player, they better know what it will take to sign them. I’ll come back to this.
Rounds
Well at least the rounds are standard, right? Of course not! Because MLB likes penalties for spending and rewards for not spending, there are only 25 1st round picks this year followed by various compensation and competitive balance picks. This is why the Phillies do not pick until #36 instead of #26. Their pick was dropped 10 spots for spending too much. However, we do get an extra 4th round pick for losing Ranger Suarez. After the 5th round, everything is finally normal.
Talent
They say $1,000,000 ain’t what it used to be, but it’s still a pretty cool number to a 17-year-old. Well, the final slot value of over $1m is #82. If you are a high school senior that wants to have that $1m distinction but haven’t been picked yet, don’t fret! There is hope for you…
What teams do is take their slot value guys early in the top 10 rounds, then back end those guys with college seniors who no one cares about. Why? Remember, college seniors do not have leverage and probably were not drafted the previous year. They will sign for $10k to $150k for the most part. If a team signs their first 5 draft picks for slot value, then their next 5 for let’s say $50k each, they end up with a huge bonus pool surplus. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
After the 10th round, slot value locks at $150k3 but you don’t save money for going under. Thinking of going over though? You need to have that extra cash. This is where those sad eyes of undrafted high schoolers get their twinkle back. Teams will start taking flyers on the kids they don’t know if they are able to sign. That saved money is dangled to see what happens.
I’ll keep you updated on Sunday with insights into the guys the Phillies end up picking just in case there is a potential diamond in the rough you need to know about.
Phillies
The Phillies have a total slot value of $7,773,000, the 5th least in the league. This is mostly because we don’t pick until #36. The first pick has a slot value of over $11m while the 36th is just $2.75m. Here is what we are working with:
| Pick Number | Slot Value |
| Round 1A – #36 | $2,758,800 |
| Round 2 – #64 | $1,416,600 |
| Round 3 – #100 | $784,400 |
| Round 4 – #128 | $597,400 |
| Round 4C – #135 | $558,400 |
| Round 5 – #161 | $433,200 |
| Round 6 – #190 | $338,800 |
| Round 7 – #219 | $267,800 |
| Round 8 – #249 | $222,200 |
| Round 9 – #279 | $202,900 |
| Round 10 – #309 | $192,500 |
| Rounds 11-20 – #26 each round | $150,000 |
I admit, that’s not very fun! However, if the Phillies start taking college seniors early, that means they are gearing up to take high school flyers later. Something to look out for.
Before taking collegiate junior Gage Wood last year, the Phillies had been drafting high schoolers with their top pick for years. If you are looking for a trend, I don’t have one for you anymore. They did take pitchers with 9 of their first 10 selections though. I don’t know if that is sustainable as a strategy two years in a row.
Names
One of my favorite things about the MLB Draft is some of the ridiculous names these kids have, like they were written for an over the top baseball movie. Last year, Gage Wood made my Top Ten Names list, so we are running it back. Same rules as last year, any name with a completely unnecessary “y” is out like the Nix brothers. In no particular order…
- Ryder Helfrick
- Jared Grindlinger
- Hunter Dietz “Nuts”
- Rocco Maniscalco
- Savion Sims
- Ruger Riojas
- Jaxon Jelkin
- Jacob Madrid
- Jorvorskie Lane
- Declan Dahl
- Weird Dom Toretto talking to the Rock at the street race in Fast 5 voice ↩︎
- If a top-3 round pick doesn’t sign, the team gets that same pick -1 the next year. Meaning if the 10th pick doesn’t sign, that team gets 11th next year. If that comp pick doesn’t sign, it’s gone forever. ↩︎
- At least that’s what it was last year, I can’t seem to find confirmation for 2026 ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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