MLB Draft 2017: Dodgers have $5.5 million bonus pool, per report

The Dodgers will have a little over $5.5 million to spend in their 2017 MLB Draft bonus pool, per numbers released by Baseball America on Tuesday.

The total draft bonus pool for the Dodgers this year will be $5,517,800, which is the sum of all the bonus allotments for picks in the first 10 rounds of the draft. The draft is 40 rounds long, but starting with the 11th round the only amount that counts toward the pool is anything over $125,000 — this is up from $100,000, per Hudson Belinsky in the Baseball America article.

In 2016, the Dodgers gave bonuses over $100,000 to six players drafted after the 10th round, and five over $125,000.

The new collective bargaining agreement has redistributed the slot values toward the top of the draft. Belinsky notes that the first overall pick slot value decreased, but picks 2-54 all increased. Every pick starting with the 55th pick has a decreased slot value.

The Dodgers’ draft bonus pool in 2016 was $9,336,500, but that was buoyed by supplemental first-round picks as compensation for losing Zack Greinke as a free agent and for failing to sign supplemental first-rounder Kyle Funkhouser in 2015. The Dodgers used those picks to draft Louisville catcher Will Smith at No. 32 overall and Vanderbilt pitcher Jordan Sheffield at No. 36.

In 2017, the Dodgers have just the standard 10 picks in the first 10 rounds instead of the 12 they had last year. They pick 23rd overall in the first round.

But with the new distribution of slot bonus allotment, the Dodgers’ bonus pool decreased. These same picks using 2016 slot values would have yielded a bonus pool of $5,606,100, or $88,300 more than they actually have.

I haven’t yet seen a copy of the full CBA, but if the draft penalties are the same, the real punitive damages don’t start until reaching 5% over the bonus pool. Up to that point there is a monetary tax on the overage (75%), but no loss of future draft picks. Last year the Dodgers spent $464,300 over their allotted slot amount, or 4.97%.

In other words, the Dodgers’ effective draft budget in 2017 — again, assuming the rules are the same in the new CBA — is $5,793,689, or one dollar less than 5% over their allotted slot amount.

Here are the slot values for the Dodgers’ 2017 draft picks, plus a look at the slot values for those same picks in 2016.