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MLB Draft bonus pools are out, and the Dodgers in 2023 will have much more to spend on amateur players than in recent years. This year’s draft will be in Seattle in and around the All-Star Game, which will be played at T-Mobile Park. The draft will begin on Sunday, July 9.
Jim Callis at MLB.com and Carlos Collazo at Baseball America have all the details on the 2023 draft bonus pools, which are the total of every pick within the first 10 rounds of the 20-round draft. The Dodgers’ bonus pool this year is $7,274,600, up a whopping 72 percent from last year’s pool of $4.2 million.
There are a few contributing factors as to why the Dodgers have much more to spend this year. For one, they didn’t sign a free agent who declined a qualifying offer this offseason, unlike when they signed Freddie Freeman in 2022 and Trevor Bauer in 2021.
Last year’s signing of Freeman to a six-year contract cost the Dodgers’ their second- and fifth-highest picks in the 2022 draft. But they also gained a compensatory pick after the fourth round when Corey Seager signed with Texas, so the net loss was essentially a pick near the end of the second-round, which under last year’s numbers had a slot value of roughly $1.07 million.
This year, the Dodgers lost two free agents who received qualifying offers, with Trea Turner inking a $300-million deal with the Phillies, and Tyler Anderson signing with the Angels. The Dodgers get two picks after the fourth round in the 2023 draft, which are back-to-back and have slot values of $942,700 in total.
There’s also inflation, with slot values up this year roughly 9.88 percent from the same picks in 2022.
The Dodgers, like last year, see their top draft pick drop 10 spots for spending more than $40 million over the 2022 competitive balance tax threshold. This year, that means pick number 26 (which has a slot value of $3,065,000) becomes the 36th pick, with a slot value of $2,362,700.
Dodgers 2023 MLB Draft bonus pool
| Round | Pick | Slot value | 2022 slot value | % increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round | Pick | Slot value | 2022 slot value | % increase |
| Comp A | 36 | $2,362,700 | $2,150,300 | 9.88% |
| 2 | 60 | $1,336,900 | $1,216,700 | 9.88% |
| 3 | 95 | $705,500 | $642,100 | 9.87% |
| 4 | 127 | $516,800 | $470,300 | 9.89% |
| FA comp (Anderson) | 136 | $473,700 | $431,100 | 9.88% |
| FA comp (Turner) | 137 | $469,000 | $426,800 | 9.89% |
| 5 | 163 | $364,400 | $331,600 | 9.89% |
| 6 | 190 | $290,100 | $264,000 | 9.89% |
| 7 | 220 | $228,000 | $207,500 | 9.88% |
| 8 | 250 | $189,300 | $172,300 | 9.87% |
| 9 | 280 | $173,600 | $158,000 | 9.87% |
| 10 | 310 | $164,600 | $149,800 | 9.88% |
| Total bonus pool | $7,274,600 |
MLB teams can spend more than their bonus pools, and for picks after the 10th round, any bonus amount over $125,000 counts toward the bonus pool. Last year, for instance, the Dodgers’ signed 11th-round pick Kyle Nevin for $397,500, of which $272,500 counted toward their pool.
Any amount up to five percent over the bonus pool comes with a 75-percent tax on the overage. But once the total reaches five percent, the penalties start to include draft picks, and since this structure was implemented over a decade ago, no team has spent so much on its draft to cost them a future draft pick. In 2022, for instance, the Dodgers spent 4.99 percent more than their bonus pool.
So while the Dodgers have a draft bonus pool in 2023 of $7,274,600 — their highest since 2019, when it was $8.07 million — they effectively have $7,638,329 ($1 less than five percent over) to spend on draft picks this year.
In addition to MLB Draft bonus pools and slot values getting unveiled on Tuesday, the international signing bonus pools for 2024 were also revealed.
The Dodgers will have $5.925 million to spend next year on international players, in the middle of the pack among MLB teams, per Carlos Collazo at Baseball America, with the next signing period beginning on January 15.
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