It is Sunday evening, at 7 p.m., that the repechage will take place. Many good teams will have the chance to add a big talent to their roster.
They say the repechage will be very good and deep.
Under the lottery, the names of pitcher Paul Skenes and outfielder Dylan Crews are pretty popular right now. The Pirates should get one of these guys.
Here is what colleague Sébastien Berrouard thinks about it.
But what you need to know is that Crews, through his requests, is indeed lining up to mark the history of the sport at the draft level.
For what? Because the young man would like, according to what is circulating, to obtain a signing bonus of 10 million dollars from the team that will draft him.
Note that the record is $8.42 million. It was Spencer Torkelson, the first choice of the 2020 auction by the Tigers, who had obtained such an amount.
What you need to know is that such an amount, in addition to being a significant financial commitment, has repercussions on the rest of the draft. For what?
Because a club can’t just give out bonuses like candy. The 30 teams have a maximum budget.
Basically, every draft pick has a monetary value at the signing bonus level. Choice #1 is obviously the highest.
To calculate its budget, a club must therefore add the sum of the amounts related to its choices and this is its maximum. A player who asks for more therefore affects the balance of the rest of the repechage.
If Crews does get $10M, the team that chooses him will have two choices:
- Not signing one or more other drafted prospects.
- Cut the bonuses of one or more drafted prospects.
It therefore changes the dynamics of the repechage… and this could cause the young man to slip in the repechage.
And no, it’s not a question of attitude à la Matvei Michkov.
In 2020, that’s what happened. After Spencer Torkelson, Austin Martin was the hottest prospect, but he wanted a bonus that matched his potential.
He therefore slipped to fifth, where the Blue Jays gave him a bonus to match his salary demands. And since the draft only had five rounds…
Martin, who does not manage to break into the Majors within the organization of the Twins, might have been drafted earlier without this bonus story.
Does the same fate await Crews? To have.
