Pittsburgh Pirates 2016 Draft Primer

The Bonus Pool and Compensation:

Unlike the one that might be in your backyard, this is one pool team’s have to be careful dipping into. The draft slot bonus pool is based off of several factors including MLB revenue from the previous season, the number of picks a team has in the first ten rounds and the location of those picks overall. The bonus pool applies to all picks from the very first player who hears his name called to the one that closes out the draft, but MLB only credits teams for picks in the first ten rounds.

The National League dominates the top five pools and the majority of the first ten picks, which is hardly a surprise considering the Reds, Phillies, Padres, Braves, and Rockies were baseball’s worst a year ago. The Cubs, who had the third best record and don’t have a single pick before the 104th overall, have the smallest bonus pool.

The Pirates pool is the 18th largest at $7,007,900 for 2016, which is down 5.5% from their pool of $7,392,200 in 2015 primarily due to being the second best team in baseball a year ago. The top slot dropped from $17,289,200 (Astros) in 2015 to $13,923,700 (Reds) in 2016, a reduction of 24.2%. Over the same time, MLB’s revenue growth increased by 4.62%.

If you recall, the Pirates failed to sign Phillies prospect Mark Appel with the eighth overall pick of the 2012 draft. As a result, the Pirates lost his value that draft year but gained the extra pick the following year that allowed them to sign Austin Meadows. Conversely, if a team exceeds their bonus pool, they have to pay a 75% tax on the amount by which they exceeded up to five percent of their pool. If the penalty exceeds five percent, the team loses critical draft picks. The pool has been exceeded 51 times since 1965, but a team has never incurred draft pick penalties.

Stay tuned for our Twitter polls asking you who the Pirates should draft with each of their first five picks and our live draft and Q&A article on Thursday at 6pm with initial thoughts to the best of our abilities. I will provide coverage for the first day, and the rest of the staff will keep you covered through the rest of the draft.

For more information concerning bonus pools and compensatory picks, click here.

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