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Draft  | Signing Bonuses  | 5/12/2011

Draft Bonuses – Ten-Year Evolution

Allan Simpson     
From 1965 to 2005, How Things Have Changed
 
How much has baseball’s signing-bonus structure changed through the years? Look no further than the evolution of first-round bonuses since 1965, the first year of Major League Baseball’s first-year player draft, to developments in the last several years.
 
No aspect of society as we know it may have seen a more-graphic case of runaway inflation.
 
We’ve identified signing bonuses to first-round draft picks over 10-year increments, beginning with the original draft 46 years ago, and concluding with the 2005 draft. Just comparing the $100,000 bonus that Arizona State outfielder Rick Monday received as baseball’s very first draft to the one that Virginia high-school infielder Justin Upton as the top pick in 2005, a cool $6.1 million, points out how bonuses have spiked through the years. Monday’s bonus was mere pocket change to Upton.
 
In addition to the signing bonuses paid out to first-round picks in 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995 and 2005, we’re also providing lists of bonuses paid to draft picks in the first 10 rounds from 2006 to 2010, which are more relevant to the 2011 process.
 
Not only is it interesting to review the evolution of bonus payments through the years, but we’ve conveniently picked some of the most noteworthy first rounds over the life of the draft.
 
Obviously, 1965 speaks for itself as it was baseball’s very first foray into the draft. The National Football League (1936), National Basketball Association (1947) and National Hockey League (1963) had already defaulted to a player draft as a systematic means to distribute amateur talent, and Major League Baseball finally decided to follow suit as the only way to curb escalating signing bonuses.
 
Both the 1985 and 2005 drafts are generally regarded as two of the most productive drafts in history, and a quick review of the bounty of talent taken in the first round in both years provides compelling evidence.
 
The 1975 draft, by contrast, may have been the weakest draft in history. Of the 24 first-round picks that year, only 12 went on to play in the big leagues. Four of the first five selections never made it, and even Southern University catcher Danny Goodwin, who was taken first overall in both the 1971 and 1975 drafts, was considered a bust, of sorts, as he never caught a single inning in the big leagues. How messed up was the 1975 draft? Future Hall of Fame outfielder Andre Dawson was an obscure 11th-round pick that year.
 
As for 1995, that hardly qualifies on the surface as one of the greatest drafts ever, though it did produce notable first-round picks like righthanders Kerry Wood (4th pick, Cubs) and Roy Halladay (17th pick, Blue Jays), and first baseman Todd Helton (8th, Rockies), who still remain active in the big leagues.
 
But that year is noteworthy in the evolution of the draft as it opened up a can of worms when righthander Ariel Prieto (5th pick, Athletics), a recent Cuban defectee, was included in the draft process. As a foreign player, Prieto had the right to sign with any club, but he inadvertently made himself subject to the much more restrictive draft process by taking up residency in the United States following his defection, and playing for an independent minor league club in the weeks leading up to the 1995 draft.
 
One year later, the fallout from Prieto’s ill-advised decision came to roost as it led to the infamous “loophole draft.”
 
Bonus payments in the mid-90s were already in the midst of a significant upward spiral and agents, mindful that Prieto, as a foreigner, didn’t leverage his unique situation to the fullest, began looking for other loopholes in the draft process to exploit. The 1996 draft subsequently saw four first-round picks take advantage of a little-known draft rule, regarding the proper tendering of contracts, and they ended up filing a grievance and were granted free agency.
 
They were free to sign with any big-league club, and the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays took full advantage of an unexpected windfall opportunity to sign some premium talent that was not otherwise afforded them.
 
When all the dust settled in the fall of 1996, the Diamondbacks handed first baseman Travis Lee a $10 million bonus (five times the largest bonus ever given to a domestic talent), and the Devil Rays trumped that a short time later by signing righthander Matt White for $10.2 million. The fallout from those unforeseen developments was significant, and it has not been lost on baseball officials that White never played a single game in the big leagues.
 
So while it is interesting to explore the increase in signing bonuses in drafts 10 years apart, from 1965 to 2005, the more intriguing storylines might actually be the twists and turns of those drafts themselves.
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