How Each MLB Team Spent Their Bonus Pool Money In The 2024 Draft

Image credit: 2024 MLB Draft (Photo by Eddie Kelly)

Analyzing the MLB draft isn’t always as straightforward as looking at which players a team picked and in what order. Because of the bonus pool system, teams are able to more creatively assemble talent on their boards compared to hard-slotting systems where talent more or less goes in the expected order.

Like I mentioned a year ago when we reviewed how teams spent in the 2023 draft, following the money is always the smart move.

Today, we’ll examine how each team opted to employ their bonus pool throughout the draft and sort teams into four main spending strategies.

But before doing that, let’s see which teams maximized their available spending and which didn’t. Below is a chart that shows how much money teams spent towards their bonus pool vs. their actual available bonus pool and the percentage of the pool that was used (overage):

Team	$ Towards Pool	Bonus Pool	Overage %	Overage $
PIT	$14,700,525	$14,000,500	105.0%	+700,025
HOU	$6,210,412	$5,914,700	105.0%	+295,712
BAL	$11,466,800	$10,920,900	105.0%	+545,900
ATL	$8,153,100	$7,765,000	105.0%	+388,100
CHI	$10,291,900	$9,802,300	105.0%	+489,600
LAA	$12,640,500	$12,041,800	105.0%	+598,700
SF	$7,942,350	$7,566,200	105.0%	+376,150
NYY	$8,538,190	$8,134,500	105.0%	+403,690
DET	$12,512,500	$11,921,800	105.0%	+590,700
BOS	$11,040,000	$10,521,600	104.9%	+518,400
OAK	$16,103,900	$15,347,900	104.9%	+756,000
CLE	$19,236,100	$18,334,000	104.9%	+902,100
PHI	$7,744,900	$7,381,800	104.9%	+363,100
WSH	$14,575,200	$13,895,100	104.9%	+680,100
CIN	$16,615,800	$15,842,100	104.9%	+773,700
SD	$9,814,600	$9,360,500	104.9%	+454,100
LAD	$6,411,300	$6,114,700	104.9%	+296,600
TEX	$7,327,600	$6,997,900	104.7%	+329,700
CWS	$15,267,500	$14,593,300	104.6%	+674,200
TOR	$9,376,050	$8,987,000	104.3%	+389,050
NYM	$9,768,000	$9,375,500	104.2%	+392,500
STL	$10,599,100	$10,213,000	103.8%	+386,100
KC	$13,394,600	$13,023,300	102.9%	+371,300
ARI	$12,662,000	$12,662,000	100.0%	–
MIL	$11,757,400	$11,757,600	100.0%	-200
MIN	$12,201,650	$12,209,600	99.9%	-7,950
MIA	$10,425,000	$10,438,500	99.9%	-13,500
COL	$17,156,100	$17,243,400	99.5%	-87,300
SEA	$9,494,900	$9,543,300	99.5%	-48,400
TB	$8,582,600	$8,832,900	97.2%	-250,300

When rounding to the nearest tenth there were nine teams who went to the full 5% overage, which is the max you can go over your bonus pool before incurring future draft pick penalties. In the 13 years of the bonus pool era, no team has been willing to go beyond that 5% overage.

Twenty-three teams went over their bonus pool allotment in some capacity, while one team (the D-backs) spent their exact bonus pool. Six teams did not go over, including the Rockies and Twins, who remain the only teams in the league who have never spent more than their available bonus pool.

These numbers are extremely similar to a year ago, and five of the six teams who didn’t spend their entire bonus pool still spent at least 99.5% of their pool. In the 2023 draft, three teams spent less than 99.5% of their total bonus pool. This year only the Rays fell below that mark and left $250,000 on the table of their final bonus pool after not signing, though that doesn’t include the bonus pool value they lost for not signing 66th overall pick Tyler Bell.

There were four teams who failed to sign players selected among the first ten rounds this year, which was the the most since the 2018 draft featured three first rounders who didn’t sign. Those teams include the Rays (Bell, 66th), Brewers (Chris Levonas, 67th), Angels (Ryan Prager, 81st) and Mets (Jaxon Jelkin, 263rd).

When a team fails to sign a player inside the top 10 rounds, they also lose the bonus pool money associated with that pick. Below you can see how each team’s bonus pool was impacted:

team	original pool	final pool	money lost
TB	$10,093,100	$8,832,900	$1,260,200
MIL	$12,984,400	$11,757,600	$1,226,800
LAA	$12,990,400	$12,041,800	$948,600
NYM	$9,572,200	$9,375,500	$196,700

For each of these teams, a lost pick is unfortunate, though not nearly to the degree of the Kumar Rocker non-signing for the Mets from the 2021 draft. That year, the Mets went significantly under slot in order to sign Rocker with their first pick, and after he didn’t sign, there was no backup player for the team to push their created “savings” towards. That led them to not using nearly $1.3 million in bonus pool space.

The Brewers pushed significant money to a handful players on the third day of the draft (Joey Broughton, Travis Smith, Jayden Dubanewicz and Tyler Renz) to essentially match the $1.9 million the team saved inside the first 10 rounds. Jelkin was simply a lower-profile miss for the Mets in the ninth round, while the Angels still managed to sign 11th rounder Trey Gregory-Alford for nearly $2 million because the Prager pick was never intended to create savings for it in the first place.

The Rays certainly come away as the biggest “losers” here because they created more than $500,000 in savings inside the first 10 rounds but then only spent just over half of that with deals towards the bonus pool in rounds 11-20. That meant they left about $250,000 on the table, which is the slot value for a mid-to-late seventh round selection.

The Rays, Brewers and Angels will each receive compensation picks in the 2025 draft for not signing players inside the first three rounds.

The First Round

The expectation for this year’s first round was that there would be plenty of underslot deals. That was, indeed, the case, as 16 of the first 30 picks signed for less than slot value. Four players signed for exactly slot value and just a third of the first rounders (10 players) signed for overslot deals.

Pick	Team	Player	Level	Slot value	Bonus	Over/Under
1	CLE	Travis Bazzana	4YR	$10,570,600	$8,950,000	-1,620,600
2	CIN	Chase Burns	4YR	$9,785,000	$9,250,000	-535,000
3	COL	Charlie Condon	4YR	$9,070,800	$9,250,000	179,200
4	OAK	Nick Kurtz	4YR	$8,370,800	$7,000,000	-1,370,800
5	CWS	Hagen Smith	4YR	$7,763,700	$8,000,000	236,300
6	KC	Jac Caglianone	4YR	$7,213,800	$7,497,500	283,700
7	STL	JJ Wetherholt	4YR	$6,823,700	$6,900,000	76,300
8	LAA	Christian Moore	4YR	$6,502,800	$4,997,500	-1,505,300
9	PIT	Konnor Griffin	HS	$6,216,600	$6,532,025	315,425
10	WSH	Seaver King	4YR	$5,953,800	$5,150,000	-803,800
11	DET	Bryce Rainer	HS	$5,712,100	$5,797,500	85,400
12	BOS	Braden Montgomery	4YR	$5,484,600	$5,000,000	-484,600
13	SF	James Tibbs	4YR	$5,272,300	$4,747,500	-524,800
14	CHI	Cam Smith	4YR	$5,070,700	$5,070,700	0
15	SEA	Jurrangelo Cijntje	4YR	$4,880,900	$4,880,900	0
16	MIA	PJ Morlando	HS	$4,704,700	$3,400,000	-1,304,700
17	MIL	Braylon Payne	HS	$4,534,100	$3,440,000	-1,094,100
18	TB	Theo Gillen	HS	$4,372,900	$4,370,400	-2,500
19	NYM	Carson Benge	4YR	$4,219,200	$3,997,500	-221,700
20	TOR	Trey Yesavage	4YR	$4,073,400	$4,175,000	101,600
21	MIN	Kaelen Culpepper	4YR	$3,934,400	$3,934,400	0
22	BAL	Vance Honeycutt	4YR	$3,802,200	$4,000,000	197,800
23	LAD	Kellon Lindsey	HS	$3,676,400	$3,297,500	-378,900
24	ATL	Cam Caminiti	HS	$3,556,300	$3,553,800	-2,500
25	SD	Kash Mayfield	HS	$3,442,100	$3,442,100	0
26	NYY	Ben Hess	4YR	$3,332,900	$2,747,500	-585,400
27	PHI	Dante Nori	HS	$3,228,300	$2,497,500	-730,800
28	HOU	Walker Janek	4YR	3,132,500	$3,130,000	-2,500
29	ARI	Slade Caldwell	HS	$3,045,500	$3,087,000	41,500
30	TEX	Malcolm Moore	4YR	$2,971,300	$3,000,000	28,700

Teams spent $151,096,325 on first round picks this year, which accounts for 40.4% of the total signing bonus dollars ($374,345,077) teams handed out to drafted players this year.

Five players signed for more than $1 million below slot value:

(1.1) Travis Bazzana, $1.6 million
(1.8) Christian Moore, $1.5 million
(1.4) Nick Kurtz, $1.4 million
(1.16) PJ Morlando, $1.3 million
(1.17) Braylon Payne, $1.1 million

Shortstop and ninth overall pick Konnor Griffin secured the most over-slot money among first rounders this year, adding $315,425 to his $6.2 million slot value at the back of the top 10. Collegians Jac Caglianone and Hagen Smith each added more than $200,000 to their slot values.

In total, teams secured $9.6 million in savings towards the bonus pool with their first overall picks, which is neck-in-neck with the $9.7 million savings total from first rounders in the 2023 draft.

Draft Strategies

Save Early, Spend Later

Angels: The Angels seemed to use a similar strategy to a year ago with an emphasis on fast-moving collegians up top. They saved big on Christian Moore with a $1.5 million underslot deal with their first pick, then added nearly half a million more in savings with second-rounder Christopher Cortez. The Angels pushed that money towards Ryan Johnson ($687K over) in the second supplemental round and used a bit more than $1.8 million towards the pool to sign 11th rounder Trey Gregory-Alford.
A’s: Oakland had one of the most aggressive “save early, spend later” drafts this year, putting most of their $1.3 million savings with No. 4 overall pick Nick Kurtz towards their next four picks, including second-rounder Tommy White ($668K over), supplemental second-rounder Gage Jump ($923K over), third-rounder Joshua Kuroda-Grauer (slot) and fourth-rounder Rodney Green ($297K over).
Braves: The Braves saved only marginally with each of their first four selections for a combined $121,100, but they still went under slot early and handed out big bonuses to their fifth and sixth rounders, Nicholas Montgomery ($594K over) and Ethan Bagwell ($510K over), respectively. To afford those bonuses, the Braves were one of the most aggressive teams at signing huge underslot deals with college seniors in rounds 7-10.
D-backs: The D-backs actually went slightly overslot for Slade Caldwell ($42K over) in the first round, but signed Ryan Waldschmidt for slot value with their second pick and then created big savings with JD Dix ($483K under), Ivan Luciano ($329K under) and Daniel Eagen ($68K under) with their 3rd-5th picks. In total, they saved about $840K with their first five picks and pushed that money towards fourth-rounder Tytus Cissell ($264K over) and fifth-rounder Connor Foley ($608K over).
Mets: The Mets didn’t create massive savings with their first few picks, but still saved on first-rounder Carson Benge ($222K under) and third-rounder Nate Dohm ($137K under) before handing out a significant over-slot deal for fifth-rounder Trey Snyder ($846K over).
Nationals: The Nationals had the opposite strategy a year ago, but saved big this time around with first-rounder Seaver King ($804K under) and then marginally with supplemental first-rounder Caleb Lomavita ($70K under). Most of the savings created there went on a huge overslot deal for second-rounder Luke Dickerson ($1.68M over). His deal was the second-largest overslot deal handed out in the 2024 draft class, behind only Angels 11th rounder Trey Gregory-Alford.
Guardians: We took a shot at breaking down Cleveland’s expected draft strategy ahead of time, and it largely panned out as expected for the Guardians. They signed the No. 1 overall pick Travis Bazzana to the largest under-slot deal of the entire draft ($1.62M under), then aggressively targeted prep arms for big overslot deals, including third-rounder Joey Oakie ($1.1M over), seventh-rounder Cameron Sullivan ($246K over) and 10th rounder Chase Mobley ($1.62M over) while also going close to the full 5% overage.
Red Sox: The Red Sox had a consensus top-10 player slip to them in Braden Montgomery with the 12th overall pick but still managed to sign him to a $485K under slot deal. The team went $154K over slot for Payton Tolle in the second but then saved with each of their next five picks ($443K in total) and pushed a significant over slot deal to eighth-rounder Conrad Cason ($1.03M)

Relatively Straight Up

Astros: The Astros had the smallest bonus pool to work with in this year’s draft and opted to play things relatively straight. Their largest deals on either side of slot value were overslot deals for third-rounder Ryan Forcucci ($273K over) and sixth-rounder Caden Powell (($115K over). Everything else was within $100K of slot value up and down the board.
Cardinals: The Cardinals had to go slightly over slot ($76K) to sign No. 7 overall pick JJ Wetherholt, but we still viewed that as one of the steals of the draft. St. Louis created some savings with third-rounder Brian Holiday ($165K under) but then signed their fourth, fifth and sixth rounders for exactly slot value.
Cubs: The Cubs went exactly slot value for both first-rounder Cam Smith and second-rounder Cole Mathis, then saved slightly with third-rounder Ronny Cruz ($206K under) and with sub-$100K savings with each of their picks from rounds 5-10 in order to give out overslot deals for fourth-rounder Ty Southisene ($399K over) and 11th rounder Eli Lovich ($500K towards the pool).
Orioles: The Orioles didn’t have a massive overslot or underslot deal until they gave sixth-rounder DJ Layton nearly $400K above slot value in the middle of the second day of the draft. The team pushed to the full 5% overage and handed out two sizable prep deals on day three with 12th-rounder Brandon Downer ($197.5K towards the pool) and 16th-rounder Nate George ($305K towards the pool).
Rangers: The Rangers are a bit tougher to clearly identify, I think. They were within $30K of slot value for each of their first four picks, which feels like a “straight up” draft strategy, but then in the fifth round spent $511K over slot to sign Devin Fitz-Gerald. The team subsequently saved $435K with their round 6-10 picks to help pay for that signing and also spent $250K towards the bonus pool with their first two picks on day three. This is on the boundary of “straight up” and “spend early, save later.” I opted for this bucket because a fifth-round overpay doesn’t scream “early” to me.
Rays: The Rays signed each of their players in the first 10 rounds to underslot deals, though, aside from fourth-rounder Nate Knowles ($180K under) and 10th rounder Trey Pooser ($108K), they were all within $100K from slot value. The team essentially signed first-rounder Theo Gillen, second-rounder Emilien Pitre, third-rounder Nathan Flewelling and seventh-rounder Ryan Andrade for slot value (though they used the $2,500 signing bonus contingency on each), so bucketing them here seems fair.
Rockies: The Rockies did go overslot for each of their first two picks, though they weren’t massive overslot deals considering the slot values at picks 3 and 48. The team then handed out six slot value deals from rounds 3-10, which puts them squarely in this strategy bucket for me (though, if you wanted to claim “spend early, save later” I wouldn’t fight you too much on it). The team created savings with second-rounder Jared Thomas ($225K under) and fourth-rounder Blake Wright ($440K under).

Spend Early, Save Later

White Sox: The White Sox inked first-round pick Hagen Smith to a deal that cost them more than $236K over slot, then went with back-to-back preps with second-rounder Caleb Bonemer ($825K over) and supplemental second-rounder Blake Larson ($200K over). Combined, the White Sox were more than $1.2 million in the hole with their first three picks and made up the savings with third-rounder Nick McLain ($196K under), sixth-rounder Jackson Appel ($253K under), seventh-rounder Phil Fox ($95K under), ninth-rounder Jack Young ($192K under) and 10th-rounder Coel McConnell ($178K under), while also going 4.7% over the bonus pool.
Twins: The Twins are a bit of a janky fit here, since they handed out two slot deals (first-rounder Kaelen Culpepper and second-rounder Billy Amick) and an underslot deal (supplemental first-rounder Kyle Debarge) with their first three picks. But they did sign supplemental second-rounder Dasan Hill to a huge overslot deal ($830K over) that they needed to save with each of their next eight picks in order to make work.
Padres: Three of the Padres’ first five picks signed for slot deals, but the team had to go heavily over slot for second-rounder Boston Bateman ($738K over) and fifth-rounder Kale Fountain ($1.26M over). In order to pay for those deals, the Padres aggressively targeted college seniors and added more than $1.5 million towards the bonus pool with that demographic across six selections, mostly in rounds 6-10.
Mariners: The Mariners find themselves back in this “spend” early, save later” bucket once again in 2024. They signed first-rounder Jurrangelo Cijntje for slot value at pick 15 but then gave second-rounder Ryan Sloan the fifth-largest over-slot deal ($1.36M over) in the class. To pay for that, Seattle was one of the most aggressive teams targeting college seniors, including significant underslot deals for third-rounder Hunter Cranton ($763K under) and fifth-rounder Charlie Beilenson ($406K under).
Pirates: If a team goes heavy on high school players with their first few picks, it’s likely they fall into the “spend early, save later” bucket. The Pirates handed out the largest first-round overslot deal to Konnor Griffin with the ninth overall pick ($315K over), essentially grabbed supplemental first-rounder Levi Sterling for slot and then gave out their largest overslot deal to third-rounder Wyatt Sanford ($513K over). To make room for those picks, the Pirates saved a combined $155K in rounds 3-10 and also pushed to the full 5% overage. You could make a case that Pittsburgh belongs in the “relatively straight up bucket” because none of their picks are clear money-saving options, and they simply opted to spend all they could without incurring pick penalties.
Royals: This draft is close to being “relatively straight up” given the signing bonus values handed out to each player throughout the class, but it’s also true that the team went over slot for each of their first three picks and under slot for the next seven to get through the first 10 rounds. It was a combined $375.5K over slot for Jac Caglianone, David Shields and Drew Beam and a combined savings of $399.2K for the rest of the top-10 rounders.
Tigers: The Tigers went a combined $643K over slot with each of their first three picks with preps Bryce Rainer, Owen Hall and Ethan Schiefelbein (though, Rainer and Schiefelbein signed overslot deals and Hall signed under). The team then saved about $679K towards the pool with their next six picks—all college players—and handed out a big overslot deal to ninth-rounder Zach Swanson ($527K over).

Balance Up Top

Reds: The Reds saved more than half a million dollars towards the pool with No. 2 overall pick Chase Burns despite the fact that he tied Charlie Condon for the largest bonus ever. The team then went overslot for second-rounder Tyson Lewis ($1.24M) and helped pay for that deal by saving throughout the rest of the first 10 rounds and going nearly to the full 5% overage of the pool.
Dodgers: The Dodgers packaged a pair of high school players at the top of their draft class, signing first-rounder Kellon Lindsey at pick No. 23 ($379K under) and then following up with third-rounder Chase Harlan at pick No. 98 ($1M over). The team saved a cumulative $327K towards the pool with their six picks from rounds 4-10 and then tapped the pool to a 4.9% overage.
Marlins: The Marlins replicated their spending strategy from a year ago with a pair of preps, though this time they went for pure hitters instead of upside arms. First-rounder PJ Morlando signed for $1.3 million under slot and then the team doubled back in the second round for Carter Johnson, who signed for $1.2 million over slot.
Brewers: The Brewers approximated the savings of the Marlins in the first round by taking Braylon Payne just after PJ Morlando and saving $1.1 million towards the pool on the speedy outfielder. The team then saved nearly $600K in the supplemental first round on Blake Burke and put most of that savings towards an overslot deal for second-rounder Bryce Meccage ($938K over). Presumably, that was also the idea for supplemental second-rounder Chris Levonas, who was one of four players to not sign among the top 10 rounds.
Yankees: The Yankees grabbed a pitcher with their first overall pick for the first time since 2017 and balanced their board by signing first-rounder Ben Hess to an underslot deal ($585K under) and second-rounder Bryce Cunningham to an underslot deal ($576K over). The team then used a few senior signings to help save for overslot deals for sixth-rounder Griffin Herring ($458K over) and 11th-rounder Mack Estrada ($490K towards the bonus pool).
Phillies: The Phillies packaged a pair of toolsy prep outfielders with their first two selections, going with Dante Nori in the first round ($731K under) and Griffin Burkholder in the second ($1.15M over). Burkholder’s deal was such that the Phillies needed to continue creating a bit of savings with most of their subsequent top-10 round picks. Philadelphia was one of the few teams who didn’t exceed $150K for any players in rounds 11-20, though the team maxed out its bonus pool at nearly the full 5% overage.
Giants: The Giants had a small bonus pool this year and only one pick inside the first 115 selections, but they created plenty of savings with first-rounder James Tibbs ($525K under). They managed to land a top-40 talent in the class with their 116th overall pick in Dakota Jordan, who required a sizable overslot deal ($1.37M over) that was the fourth-largest such deal in the draft. The team had to continue creating savings with each of their next six picks, but Tibbs’ deal did most of the work in this top-heavy draft class.
Blue Jays: The Blue Jays signed first-rounder Trey Yesavage for a slightly overslot deal at pick No. 20 ($102K over) and then balanced their next two picks with second-rounder Khal Stephen ($372K under) and third-rounder Johnny King ($480K over). They created around $320K in savings towards the pool with their next eight picks to help make some flexibility for day three and help sign 12th-rounder Carson Messina ($400K towards the pool).

Most Aggressive With Senior Signs (4+)

The Padres and the Mariners tied for the most senior signs among the first 10 rounds with six apiece, though the tie-breaker that puts the Padres squarely on the pedestal for this category is their $1.55 million in combined underslot savings from those picks. The Mariners checked in at $1.51 million in combined savings.

The Braves and White Sox both selected four senior signs in the first 10 rounds, tied for third among all orgs, and saved $794K and $608K towards the pool, respectively, with those picks. The Brewers can be an honorable mention for this category. They selected just two seniors among the first 10 rounds but combined for $919K in savings towards the pool with those picks.

Most Aggressive On Day Three ($500K to pool or more)

The Angels spent $2,062,500 towards the pool on day three, which narrowly beat the Brewers for the most in this category, though both teams are in a tier of their own here. The Angels primarily spent that money on 11th-rounder Trey Gregory-Alford, the No. 98 player in the class, but 18th-rounder David Mershon signed for $405,000 and is one of just three players from this draft class already in Double-A.

The Brewers spent $1,912,500 towards the pool on day three, which is seemingly a function of not signing Chris Levonas and then pushing the savings created for that pick to a number of players who signed on deadline day: 13th-rounder Joey Broughton ($385K towards the pool), 15th-rounder Travis Smith ($312K towards the pool), 16th-rounder Jayden Dubanewicz ($515K towards the pool) and 18th-rounder Tyler Renz ($700K towards the pool).

The Cubs spent $570K towards the pool on day three, while the Orioles spent $502,500, and the Blue Jays spent $500K.

Facts & Figures

As mentioned previously, there were four players who did not sign among the first 10 rounds this year. That means, the signing rate for players among the first 10 rounds in the bonus pool era now stands at 98.7% (3,963 players picked, 50 unsigned).

There were 615 players were selected in this year’s draft. Below is the breakdown of selected players based on school source:

Four-Year Colleges: 77.07% (474)
High Schools: 18.70% (115)
Junior Colleges: 4.26% (26)

Below is the breakdown of players based on sub-categories of school source:

JR: 44.72% (275)
SR: 21.63% (133)
HS: 18.37% (113)
5S: 4.39% (27)
SO: 4.23% (26)
J2: 2.44% (15)
GR: 2.11% (13)
J1: 1.14% (7)
J3: 0.65% (4)
NS: 0.33% (2)

Of the 615 drafted players, 570 signed (92.68%). Of players who signed, here is the breakdown based on school source, with the total numbers of players signed from each source and signing rate of each source in parentheses: