Now that MLB’s abbreviated 2020 draft is in the books, we can move along to the next phase of this one-off amateur signing season. Undrafted amateur players will now be free to sign with any team of their choosing, though they are capped with a signing bonus of $20K. Thus, the setup here presents a fascinating situation for amateur ballplayers and for us, those interested in parsing the ins-and-outs of roster-building. Here we have a unique situation where money will not necessarily be the driving factor for players choosing their first professional team. As players start to sign, we’ll likely hear stories that shed light on player perspective, which could paint an interesting picture of how young players view different franchises around baseball. For now, we’re starting to hear from teams themselves about spending limits for this class of amateur free agents. We’ll use this post to update those strategies as they trickle in…
- The Giants have no apparent limits when it comes to signing amateur free agents now that the draft is completed. John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle provides a primer for this period of amateur free agents, writing, “The process starts at 6 a.m. Sunday, and the Giants will compete with the other 29 teams for the best available talent. But rather than outspending the others, all they can do is try to outsell them and offer appealing opportunities.” Given the Giants’ current position as a team looking to infuse as much young talent as possible, one would expect them to be aggressive in their attempts to add players from this pool. Obviously, more players than usual will be returning to college or committing to school as high school graduates, but given the volatility of the MLB draft under normal circumstances, it’s fair to expect a quality player or two to emerge from this pool of undrafted amateurs.
- The Marlins are planning on limiting their pool of undrafted amateur free agents to 10 signings or less, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (Twitter links). Along with their six drafted players, all of whom are expected to sign, the Marlins can expect an influx of 16 players max.
- Similarly, the Mariners don’t expect to go hog wild with this year’s class of undrafted amateur. Per MLB.com’s Corey Brock, the Mariners’ Scouting Director Scott Hunter said the Mariners will only be signing between five and ten amateur free agents.
- The Royals, meanwhile, are ready to shop, tweets Jeff Rosen of the Kansas City Star. The Royals could be big-time players in this sphere, as they’ve generated some goodwill recently because of their treatment of minor league players. Kansas City might not typically be a major free agent draw, but for amateur players, it’s a different story. The Royals have the opportunity and a long track record of highly valuing their own players. For players looking for their first professional contract, the Royals have a lot to offer. Among other things, they’re ready to be aggressive. GM Dayton Moore has the green light to “sign as many of those guys as we can,” per Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star.
Hope Middleton is letting Klentak have free reign. i bet there are loads of future pieces out there that could go for the financial security. throw 20000 at most eligible guys that arent college seniors and see if it sticks
First part of your post makes sense, but in no way, shape, or form is 20,000 dollars financial security.
its more than the negative money you are making to go to college (unless you litteraly have a full scholarship, which is uncommon these days)
More than zero (or minus $20K, since they have partial scholarships), does not make it financial security. If you can barely live on it for 1 year, you’re not secure. Remember, they make peanuts in the minors.
@Darkside830
There might be quite a few that can be swayed into taking the $20K.
Even though there’s most likely no minor leagues this season, there’s no guarantee there will be a college season in ’21, if there’s a big spike this Winter. The last thing many of these 19 & 20 year olds want is to be set back another year.
Sure, it’s possible there isn’t a minor league season in ’21 either, but it’s far more likely for the college season to get cancelled than the minor leagues in ’21.
No Guys worth signing are signing at 20K . Lol
That’s crap money
The degree is worth more
Some walk on in college, like Nick Gonzalez, becomes top talent. A good scouting program will see the potential of some non star talent, and some unknown will become a big league regular. This should show the development skills of each teams’ minor league system.
@rightyspecialist
LOL, you could say that 30 years ago, but the joke that’s been going around for a while is a bachelor’s degree will fetch a job as a barista at Starbucks.
Most bachelor’s degree aren’t worth the money you spend to get the degree. You go so far into debt, and the job you get isn’t much higher paid than a job coming out of high school. I know many high school graduates who are higher paid and higher up on the ladder than those with bachelor’s degrees
That being said, I don’t mean to discourage anyone from getting one. If you want that degree and sense of accomplishment, more power to you. But that’s a ton of money being spent for not receiving a sure thing in the job market.
You can hate on a degree, but what can you be without one?
Spoiler. You’re capped at barista, instead of doing it while you’re 20. Or live on commission for your life. But honestly, most commission jobs expect a degree nowadays
@Commonsenseslapsyou
I don’t hate degrees, My point is it’s a lot different getting one now than 30 years ago. You were in very good shape if you graduated with a bachelor’s 30 years ago, definitely not so now. You still have a better shot getting a good job with a degree now, but you could just as easily be working a dead-end job you wouldn’t even need a degree for, basically making that degree a huge waste of money.
Yes, some people get degrees for the sense of accomplishment or the experience of college life, but virtually everyone who is paying for a degree want it to pay off for them once they graduate. You don’t want the break-even point for the degree to be 20 years in the future, you want that break-even point to be a few years.
And to make this relevant to the article, quite a few of these players are only going to college for the scholarship. They have no interest in getting a degree and would be lucky to achieve a 2.0 GPA in college. If there’s no college season next year, they have no interest in being at that college, except maybe to party every night.
Lots of entrepreneurs, business owners etc do not have degrees.. Jobs, Gates the list is long..
Agreed stymee. I am happy that BC is in charge for this and the pirates. This woulda have been a disaster under Huntington wow! Seriously though, him and his team see talent and now it’s available for next to nothing.
If you’re paying for the degree, one has to have caution with your major. A lot of these guys have college scholarships and if you aim for a good degree, business, finance, account, Math, engineering, science… You can make good money.
majoring in liberal arts or underwater basketweaving isn’t so great for a return on your money… however, if you are getting the degree for free, a degree in rock climbing, or sports management, etc is still better than nothing.
Gates doesn’t have a degree because he was a genius software engineer that dropped out of Harvard. Not exactly a decent example. A free four year college degree in just about anything is worth more than a 20K bonus check.
Most trades do not require a degree just the ability to learn, some intelligence, and a willingness to work.
Paul Allen was the “Genius” engineer, Gates was the marketer/business guy who took someone else’s business idea
The Giants.Lol . Zaidi and his scouts are headlining the draft ‘Winners and Loser ‘ Articles as LOSERS after their Sh**tstorm of a draft . Now, They’re trying to leak it out to homer Giants writers that they’ll make it up in Unrestricted Free Agent signings. What a clusterf**ck
@Dubsdynasty, Besides Harrison the rest of the picks were either the least needed position (Bailey) or picked way ahead of the talent they seem to posses.
I don’t understand any other pick they made, Zaidi thinks this method of signing a bunch of utility players, and now apparently drafting them is going to lead the team back to the WS. There was so much talent left on the board when they selected at #13, I don’t understand the Bailey pick at all.
Just a thought and perhaps a bad one: teams have money, so sign as many players for 20k as you can and then have an extended “tryout camp” cut those that aren’t worth keeping and your loss is minimal (50 cut players = 1 million dollars). But you’d find several gems in that bunch.
They really don’t need a tryout. They’ve scouted them all already, in game action.
I wouldn’t expect a flood of signings. Two fewer minor league teams per organization (three in some instances) severely limits the need for additional signings, since MOST (yes, not all) signings after the fifth round are organizational fillers.
As ever, the teams that are better at scouting and player development will do well. The rest will just spend about $200,000 for little return.
Not that it’s a LOT of money; it’s relatively less than chump change. But it’s entirely possible that you sign a guy, he takes up a spot on a low-A roster, and you wind up releasing a player that you might have been better off keeping.
that’s completely wrong. most round 20-40 guys are organizational fillers, but to say most 6-19 guys are is just flat out wrong.
Check out Baseball Reference. Most round 6-19 picks don’t even sniff the majors. Bobtillman is correct.
i have and that’s why im so sure of my point. even if its not a large %, a small % of a lot of players is still a lot of guys. seems you get a few guys from each of those rounds every year that become useful players. also, the number of successful players doesnt mean organizations dont view these players as valuable beyond being org. fillers.
“Most” has a meaning. Unless you are arguing that more round 6-19 picks end up in the majors than don’t–or at the very least close to half, allowing for some degree of hyperbole–then your point is objectively wrong.
Nobody denies that some players in those rounds become major-league contributors, but that doesn’t mean it even sniffs “most.”
this will be interesting.. prospects normally at the mercy of the draft order might be able to be more selective whilst teams can target the prospects that they covet with more focused bidding, am I right?
Dock, 50 years ago yesterday btw.
Ha! So it was, thanks for pointing that out!
People worry too much about signing bonuses. How much would you pay to pursue a childhood dream? The Grand Prize is the Opportunity. The Signing Bonus is just the icing on the cake. Take advantage of the Opportunity and make your money once you reach the Majors.
If you’re good at something never do it for free. If you were in line for a six-figure bonus before the COVID-altered draft, I’d rather go back to school where all of my stuff is paid for. Even if your draft stock plummets, there’s a good chance of finding a job that pays more than 20,000.
If I wanted it bad enough, sure. But I hope players are being realistic and surrounding themselves with people who can give them good advice. $20k isn’t a lot to condemn yourself to 3-4 or more years in the minors.
But keep in mind when playing in the minors, their starting salary is $850 per month, well below minimum wage! These players need their $100K – $300K signing bonuses to live off of while they toil in the minors for years and determine if they are good enough to make it to the show. No one with real talent is going to sign for $20K and then not be able to survive.
Those young players SHOULD go for their child hood dream job for a signing bonus of 20k. It’s the players in the majors that should be fighting that fight. The owners get enormous value from those young, badly paid minor Leaguers. If the MLBPA won’t take up this fight agressively than there isn’t much hope for them until they actually make it to the majors.
This is their last chance to get paid anything until they reach the majors tho…. in 5 years.
You really think 20k+ below poverty line of payment will last you 5 years till you maybe reach the majors? It’s A joke the last drafted guy has a slot bonus of 320K and these guys can make max 20.
Watch the legacy teams;: Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox and Cardinals.,They have the name recognition and that helps.
Cellar dwellers might do surprisingly well also as young players look for a path to the majors.
In some ways I can understand the appeal of those legacies. It’d certainly hold some allure. You’ve got to consider how likely it is you can reach a ML roster, too. That’d be much easier in Baltimore, Detroit or Miami.
Of course, if I’m not a left side IF, the Red Sox are certainly a nice combination of both.
i doubt that has near the affect that people think it will.
Damon Oppenheimer who runs the Yankee/ Scouting and Draft notes the Yankees have the most scouts ( which is important with relationship building) plus the legacy. Something to watch for.
“Legacy” doesn’t have a ton to do with it for younger players. Location, recent development record, and other things are more determining factors.
The Yankees don’t even have any recent legacy players unless you’re a fan of the team. For example, I’m around college age, so I only remember the 2009 Yankees team which was 10 years ago and the only true legends to play for the Bombers have been Jeter and Rivera. Unless I’m a devoted Yankees fan, their status as a “legacy” franchise doesn’t do much for me as much as the fact as they’re doing a great job developing talent, they look to be contenders for a long time, are on my coast, and will spend money.
Cubs as a “legacy” team? Hmm.
I think teams with good player development track records and teams that treat players well will have the most luck
@retire. I cocked my eye brow at the Cubs as well. I think he really means the biggest spending clubs in general.
I don’t know, the Cubs have a legacy- just not all of it’s good. It’s a very recognizable brand, though. I felt as if that’s maybe what he meant?…
I suppose that could be. Perhaps legacy means most recognizable. After all I’m not a Cubs fan but I’m aware of their not so distant past nick name of “Lovable Loosers”.
I agree with JZ below, I think it’ll be largely about how player development programs are viewed, more so than just name
Now the NYY/BOS/LAD…among many others.. fit both bills. But I think the former will outweigh the latter
Go Royals; they already have shown that players and other team personnel are valued.
I think they will do well signing guys. On the other end, Oakland will be lucky to get anyone after they tried to stop paying their minor leaguers
This years draft is unique with no minor league games. You can bring them in during “Spring training” but then what? Send them home until winter? Or next year? It’s not just bonus. It’s also development and playing time this year.
none of these guys are sitting on their couches. chances are they have a workout/throwing plan the organizations have laid out for their players and maybe specialized plans for more premier prospects.
Most teams probably should do 4-5 signings and then get filler from the independent leagues or international signings. Unfortunately most of these young kids would be better off selling insurance than riding the bench in low A.
ah, I didnt know you were a scout
Again, you are wrong. Most of these UDFAs will have a tough time reaching High A or even AA.
These guys are likely going to provide some incredible bargains for the owners. Not only is $20K very little empirically, but without a decent bonus, the owners will have the upper hand in getting some of the talented players to accept cheap extensions, since they won’t have much to fall back on. Some of the players should seriously consider deferring for a year, playing on a college team. A full scholarship is the “pillow contract” for anyone after the 5th round.
That is true.,Which is why if there is any advantage it goes to the bigger teams. Say you are from Southern California and you have a chance to play for the Dodgers instead of being a 20th Rounder for the Orioles, it might be worth it to sign.
Good point…the interesting question is whether the big market teams offer an eventual pathway to the Majors. If you go to a team that’s stuffed with talent, you might not get a chance for a while. The other problem any of these guys have is that with small bonuses, they are going to be on short leashes, since team investment is small.
That applies to every team to some extent. But opportunity and development are other things to consider.
If I am a kid and I don’t have enough talent to get drafted in 5 rounds, where do I go? The Yankees? If I am an OF I have to compete with Judge, Stanton, Frasier, Hicks, Tauchman, Dominguez and Florial…I don’t think so. If I am a pitcher I only have to pass the 10-12 guys the Yankees have in the minors who are hitting triple digits. Now, do I go there, or do I go someplace like the Marlins or Orioles where I could be starting in the majors within 2 years?
I think teams are going to struggle to sign actual free agent talent. In years past, 10th round draft picks would earn just under $150K in signing bonuses so I don’t foresee many players ranked in the Top 500 agreeing to a $20K bonus. There will be a lot of undrafted high school prospects going to junior college this year or to traditional 4 year schools and giving the draft another shot in a couple of years. Even college seniors have the option to go back to college for 1 more year of eligibility to improve their draft profile. Perhaps due to age concerns, some seniors will sign for $20K, but they will be marginal at best talents. Most of the remaining ‘real’ talent just won’t sign for $20K. It makes no sense to do so especially with minor league salaries being so low. If it’s legal to do, maybe some teams will agree to higher minor league salaries in order to entice free agents to sign this year but short of that, they won’t attract much talent with a $20K bonus.
good point, seniors normally don’t have a choice but this year they can still go back to school
This Covid thing has really changed baseball. An entire season has been lost for minor leaguers. These guys who were drafted at #10-#20-#30 and up who are not above A Ball after 3+ years are toast. Where does a 24-25 yr. old guy who’s been hitting .230 in A ball go? What does he have to look forward to? Similarly, 25 yr. old pitchers with 5.00 ERAs in A Ball are done.
These 150+ guys just drafted have a ton of spots to fill from these guys who are going to be dropped.
The big question is what are all these guys who were 6-10 in the draft order going to do? Stay in college for their senior years? Most high schoolers who don’t get picked early who have college options probably should go the collegiate route.
There’s still a ton of Latin FA from Dominican and Venezuela to go after too.
If teams do in fact drop a couple teams from their minors…that’s 50-60 teams and over 1000 spots.
If a ML team comes calling this year and makes you a $20,000 bonus offer and some sort of contract do you take it? Cuz…next year there are going to be fewer jobs in minor league ball.
These undrafted kids have a big decision to make.
There are so many ways to look at this and most of them are negative, in my opinion.
That said, it’s easy to see teams with good developmental systems and clearer paths to opportunities being attractive. Seattle immediately jumps out. They should target catchers and infielders.
Go (back) to college, everyone. Take the year they’ve given you. If you’re a junior who has kept up, the degree is worth way more than $20K.
If MLB is going to force MiLB to significantly contract, eliminating all the Rookie ball teams in particular, where are all these $20K signees going to get playing time. Maybe the teams only signing a few realize that (1) only those with no alternative will sign, and (2) they’ll have nowhere to put everyone. Or they’re super cheap.
Most likely extended Spring Training. The teams that train in Florida have the Gulf Coast League and the Arizona teams have the AZL. Think the owners prefer to have the players there instead of Advanced Rookie ball since they own those teams.
Most smart, undrafted amateur players will not bite on a measly 20K signing bonus.
That is a delusional idea by ownership trying to sc*** young players.
If it was me, I would go back to college or or Junior college and wait for the next “real draft” with “real money”. No need to sign now. Most p[ayers do not even make the majors as a career and this signing bonus may be the only “real baseball money” that they ever see,So, they wait it out.
That’s a short term outlook. Getting into an MLB organization, one of their choosing, can help them get to MLB faster, where the real money is.
Every team should go down their draft board and sign any player willing. Especially the teams that rely heavily on the draft. They’ll never have this kind of unlimited access to players again. Negotiations will be easy. 20k, yes or no. There’s a reason MLB drafts over 1000 players a year
Exactly. With only 5 rounds, there are definitely some serviceable MLB players out there, and it’s likely an All Star or two or more can be found. Small market teams should go to the feast and stuff their bellies. They in fact have an advantage, because they really don’t have many guys blocking the paths for players like the contenders and big market teams do. That’s my selling point to these undrafted players.
Who will be the players that, 5 years from now, we will be talking about how we can’t believe that they weren’t drafted?
As for an undrafted player, this is a great opportunity to have control over your future. If you want to fast track to MLB, you definitely want to sign with a team that has a a vet that is 30 or older or a rebuilding team that is taking a ‘best man wins the job’ approach. For this kids that don’t have the best representation as far as long-term opportunities, those are the idiots that will sign with the winning, big market franchises, without grasping the concept that those teams have studs that aren’t going anywhere anytime in the foreseeable future. If I’m one of the undrafted players, I’m looking Marlins, Pirates, Reds, Brewers (depending on position), Padres, Giants, Rockies, D-Backs, Rays, O’s, Blue Jays, Royals, Tigers, A’s, Rangers, M’s.
It still makes no sense for these guys to sign this year as there will be no rookie ball camps or games in 2020. Sure they might have some Zoom meetings and send these guys some work out regimens but none of the upcoming free agent signees will be playing organized ball this year. If they end up putting together the Fall League they are talking about, it’s only going to be for the top 30-40 prospects in the system. It just makes much more sense to bi-pass this FA system altogether and wait until things get back to normal.
I can understand Rays, Padres, Blue Jays, Royals and Snakes ( they have good player development), but the teams I mentioned earlier ( plus the Braves who have excellent player development), have the advantage. I cannot stand Scott Boras but one thing I agree with him about is there are a lot of advantages in going to a team with strong player development. If I am looking for one team to do well it isThe Dodgers. Why? They have both the legacy and the strong player development.
At 20k, the decision for a prospect becomes very easy. There is no downside risk to waiting another year if you have talent. Wishful thinking on the clubs’ part trying to convince them through the media that they will be signing a bunch of them for peanuts. Pretty despicable really.
They should do away with the draft and international free agent pool by combining the two. Give every team an amateur money pool, $10mil?, every offseason and let them cut deals individually. Maybe teams with worse records or those who lost big FA players get more to compensate. High schooler, college FR, SO, JR, SR, Korean, Puerto Rican, Dominican, whatever all available.
Zero chance of that happening. They have a draft to try to balance talent and competition. There’s likely going to be an international draft at some point as well.
What we might see, and should see, is the ability to trade draft picks.
You are describing the broken system that let a handful of big market teams dominate MLB for decades…That broken system will never be agreed to by the players and owners again….Why even spend the money to own a franchise if teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox etc can scarf up all the good players and all the other teams become glorified farm teams for the top 5-6 revenue teams?!
There is a silver lining in this for the players who weren’t drafted. At least some of them will have an opportunity to choose between clubs. That is a luxury that may never happen again.
Money will have to be less of a motivator but their choice can be based on which club develops them the best. If you’re a pitcher maybe you want to sign with the Devil Rays. If you’re a catcher, you sign with the Cardinals (not the Giants because they have to many). Or maybe you will be able to play for your childhood favorite team.
I don’t think these luxuries make up for the loss of money. The MLBPA needs to fight harder for these guys, but there is a silver lining to this.
How long does this 20K cap last for undrafted players? No minor league season this year. If you were a possible 6th or 7th round pick, that was 100K to high 200K slot value last year. Why even sign?
Also, what is the point of offering these lowball 20K deals to bunches of players when in the same breath MLB owners are talking about minor league contraction of leagues and teams?!
My advice to any one offered 20K is to go to college or stay in college and wait until this pandemic blows over.
Then, if they are good enough, then sign for much more in 2021..
The teams are just using these 20K bonus players and will be releasing many of them within a year or 2.