Astros Draft Pick Penalty Boosts All Other Teams’ Bonus Pools

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MLB’s decision to penalize the Astros by taking away their first and second round picks in the 2020 and 2021 MLB drafts will take money out of the draft, but it will be a negligible amount.

To adjust for the elimination of the two picks, MLB will move everyone else’s picks up in the valuation. So, the value the Astros first round pick would have carried as the last pick in the first round will now go to the Orioles competitive balance pick that was slated to be the pick after the Astros. Every other slot will also move up.

The valuations for the 2020 draft have not been released by MLB yet, but last year, the difference between the 30th and the 31st pick was $53,500, so it will be a useful addition. In essence, everyone but the Astros will get a little more money to spend in the draft.

While everyone’s slots move up to adjust for the two missing picks, the top 10 rounds of the 2020 draft will now have two less spots than it would have had without the penalties. That means that two 10th round slot valuations are now missing from the draft. Last year, those slots were valued at $142,200 apiece. Since teams are allowed to spend up to $125,000 on a player after the 10th round without affecting their bonus pool, it means that MLB as a whole will have around $35,000 less to spend in the 2020 draft.