The 2024 MLB Draft is finally here. The three-day event kicks off tonight at 7pm EST, with the first round being televised on ESPN and MLB Network, with the following rounds being available for streaming on MLB.com.
We'll keep this article updated as the picks roll in, and all the way through the 2024 signing deadline, complete with signing bonus information.
The way the MLB Draft works is that each of the picks in rounds 1-10 are assigned a slot value. Add up each of those individual slot values and you get a team's total bonus pool. Players in rounds 11-20 are assigned a common slot value of $150k, which does not count toward the bonus pool. However, if a team signs a player drafted in rounds 11-20 for more than $150k, that overage will be counted towards the bonus pool for rounds 1-10.
If a team exceeds their total bonus pool by 0-5%, they'll be taxed a 75% surcharge on the overage. Penalties become incrementally worse if teams exceed 5% of the bonus pool, including the loss of draft picks at certain intervals. To this point, no team has ever surpassed the 5% mark and lost draft picks this way.