Teams have until 4pm CT today to reach agreements with their selections from this year’s amateur draft, and here are the latest notable signings coming in under the wire. You can get more background on these players via the prospect rankings and scouting reports compiled by Baseball America, Fangraphs, MLB Pipeline, The Athletic’s Keith Law, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. As well, here is MLB Pipeline’s breakdown of the slot values assigned to each pick in the first 10 rounds, as well as the bonus pool money available to all 30 teams. 2021 amateur draft signings
- The Giants went way overslot to sign fourth-round pick Eric Silva, as Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo reports that the high school right-hander received a bonus of $1,497,500 to begin his pro career rather than attend UCLA. That works out to just under $1MM in money beyond the assigned $502.3K slot price for the 115th overall pick.
Why would they overpay that much?
Because he had a good personality, why do you think? Is “we believe in his talent” too easy of an answer? Perhaps they should’ve hired you as scout to consult with prior to making their decision.
For a lot of high schoolers the bonus is an incentive to live the minor league lifestyle for 3-4 more years in exchange for the college experience, after which they expect to be drafted higher.
To keep him from going to UCLA and raising his stock more for following drafts. SF did the same for one of their other top prospects, Kyle Harrison.
The Giants have Big Money contracts coming OFF the books in 2022… so they have some wiggle room with the $$…
Because the Giants FO is smart and they use all the tricks.
I hope there is breakdown of all those not signed through round 10 later tonight…
Glad Giants got Silva but they overpaid as they did with their first round pick Bednar. But they got all their first ten picks signed and didn’t go past the penalty mark on slot money.
With the Marlins signing Khalil Green for around $4.5 million the Giants have to fess up to letting a better player pass them by. Sign-ability was an issue for Green but Miami got him at a good price for the #4 rated prospect; that makes the SF draft a slight fail but overall OK.
you have no idea what you are talking about. Marlins had $2M more in their slot budget.
This is why players fall to teams with bigger budgets. Understand how the math works before you judge the Giants or any team.
Actually, I understand it perfectly. Giants had a plan which they didn’t stray from; that’s fine but for someone as smart as Zaidi is supposed to be he has to be able to alter plans when opportunity presents itself.
For someone who has a penchant for finding value Farhan could have drafted Greene and found value with picks 2-10 in order to sign Greene. The worst case scenario would have been getting a comp pick next year as it appears the Mets will do with Kumar.
I like the draft for the Giants but they let the best player get away. It was a safe and wise thing to do for the Giants but it lacked fortitude.
so you understand the process and can predict the future? your method requires knowing what may fall. Also, best player is subjective and worst case scenario of losing the player that year is just dumb. Have a plan and use your budget. Teams with bigger slot budgets have the ability to play around. It is
You make good points, but I don’t entirely agree. Drafting Watson and then finding value in picks 2-10, is basically gambling on one guy. Given the nature of prospects failing, Zaidi is opting to spread the risk around. In a lot of cases there is a clear favorite, but it’s still better to bet on the field.
Knowing how smart Zaidi is, I’m sure he’s fully aware that he had that option to make it possible to draft Watson. But I think he saw more potential value, and less risk, in multiple picks.
just how the game works
For someone who understands it perfectly it would help if you had your facts right. 1. Khalil Greene retired in 2009, Marlins drafted Kahlil Watson, a SS. Giants needed pitching prospects so that’s what they went out and drafted. 2. Bednar signed for $300k under the slot value… how is that an overpay??? Yes usually first round you go for best available not by necessity, but the Giants drafted what, 10 pitchers in a row? They obviously valued Bednar’s experience as well
exactly. everything they said was moronic and had no understanding behind limitations with Marlins having $2M more to play with. Also getting the name wrong didn’t help but I didn’t wanna distract too much from my core response
The point about Khalil Watson is legitimate but look at how many teams passed on him. Finances played a big role in it but maybe Pro scouts know things we don’t. Not everyone is comfortable Drafting Highschool players in round 1.
San Francisco has Brian Bridges working for them. Bridges is a highly respected scout that mainly focuses on Pitchers (Craig Kimbrel, Mike Soroka, Ian Anderson, Kyle Muller, Mike Minor, etc).
I think Zaidi trusts his Scouts…and if your scouts are better with Pitchers than Hitters (or vice versa) it makes sense to lean on their strengths.
Bednar was signed for an under slot value, not sure what you mean
Any discussion of draft picks ignores the fact that teams have far more info than us readers of Baseball Reference. The Giants wanted pitching and they made their moves accordingly. To say they made a mistake by not drafting Watson is assuming Watson is going to succeed. Why did everyone else pass on him? By drafting just one high schooler in the first 10 rounds allowed them to convince Silva to sign. I assume Silva would have gone to UCLA given a lesser offer.