Some bonus pool creativity helped secure some higher upside college prospects
The 2021 MLB Draft took place last month over three days from July 11 to July 13. The Twins selected 21 players in the 20 round draft. Following the completion of the draft, each team had a little less than three weeks to come to contract agreements with those players. The deadline for signing 2021 draft picks came and went at 5 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday.
With the fervor of the trade deadline action this week, you might not have been paying close attention to the draft signing deadline. While the draft signing deadline does not come with anything close to the excitement of the trade deadline, this year’s signing deadline was not without drama. The big news has been about the New York Mets and the tenth overall pick, Vanderbilt RHP Kumar Rocker, failing to come to an agreement. As a result, Rocker will be eligible to return to Vanderbilt or begin his professional career in unaffiliated baseball. He’ll be eligible for the 2022 draft. For their part, the Mets will receive the eleventh pick in next year’s draft, in addition to their usual pick based on the 2021 final standings.
The Twins had no such drama with their contract negotiations, coming to terms with 20 of their 21 choices before the deadline.
Before the draft, each pick in the first ten rounds is assigned a bonus value (i.e., slot value) and each club’s bonus pool is limited to the sum total of the slot values of their picks. There are no bonus values assigned for picks after the tenth rounds, however, any bonus amount over and above $125,000 counts against the team’s signing bonus pool. Undrafted free agents are limited to signing bonuses of $20,000.
If a team fails to sign a player selected in the first ten rounds, they forfeit the associated slot value with that pick. As a result of Rocker and the Mets not agreeing, the Mets are forfeiting the $4.74-million bonus pool allotment associated with the tenth pick.
As a result of signing all eleven of their choice made in the top ten rounds, the Twins spent all but about $80,000 of their $8.1-million bonus pool.
Below is a rundown of each Twins pick and their reporting signing bonus, thanks to the draft database at Baseball America. You can see the Twins were able to negotiate successfully and maneuver their bonus pool money to go over slot value to secure the commitments of some prospects who could have returned to school, like Christian Macleod, Jake Rucker, Noah Cardenas, Patrick Winkel, and Jaylen Nowlin.
The lone draft choice who was not signed was 11th rounder Brandon Birdsell, who announced shortly after the draft that he would be returning to Texas Tech for another year.
Overall, this Twins’ draft class looks like a departure from the previous classes selected by the current front office in that it is heavier on college pitching prospects. The Twins have prioritized powerful, collegiate bats the past few years, but the industry consensus that the overall strength of this year’s draft eligible players was collegiate pitching seems to have led the Twins to change directions.
In addition to these twenty drafted players, the Twins have also signed at least three undrafted players to free agent contracts. Again, courtesy of Baseball America, they are:
- Logan Campbell, RHP, Charleston (W.V.): 9-1 3.15 ERA, 65.2 IP, 1.19 WHIP, 13.84 K/9, 4.52 BB/9
- Jordan Carr, LHP, College of Charleston: 3-3 4.52 ERA, 61.2 IP, 1.51 WHIP, 7.44 K/9, 2.63 BB/9
- A.J. Labas, RHP, Louisiana State: 4-2 5.55 ERA, 86.0 IP, 1.41 WHIP, 7.74 K/9, 1.78 BB/9
Best of luck to all the newest members of the Twins organization as they start their professional careers!
John is a contributor to Twinkie Town with an emphasis on analytics. He is a lifelong Twins fan and former college pitcher. You can follow him on Twitter @JohnFoley_21.
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