Funkhouser, a Louisville product, agreed to a $750,000 signing bonus, above the slot value ($526,200) of the 115th overall pick. Funkhouser is no ordinary fourth round pick, though. MLB draft 2015: Draft signings tracker. With the first ten rounds of the MLB Draft in the books, it's now time for draftees to sign their contracts and start their professional careers. As part of the negotiations for a 2020 season radically altered by the coronavirus, the MLB Players Association agreed to allow MLB to shorten the Draft to as few as five rounds. MLB elected to do so, and the Orioles will have the highest bonus pool at $13,894,300, followed by the Tigers at $13,325,700.

Terms of the contracts were not announced, but MLB.com reported that Loftin received a $3 million signing bonus — above the slot value of the 32nd pick ($2.26 million).
The Red Sox selected Lakins in the sixth round of the 2015 MLB Draft, signing him for an above-slot bonus of $320,000. Lakins struck out three batters in two shutout innings during his only appearance with the Class A Short Season Lowell Spinners in 2015. He then pitched for the GCL Red Sox, but only in the playoffs.

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First off, I want to say that Matt is SO excited and grateful for the Dodgers’ giving him a chance to chase his dream and continue to play baseball. He could not be happier. And I couldn’t be happier for him and to be a part of this journey.

However, this blog is to give a little insight on how this process works. The draft process is not something most people want to go through. And now, being a “professional baseball player” is not all sunshine and iced tea.

Let’s start with the draft process. Matt started filling out questionnaires and being in contact with scouts as early as the Fall 2014 semester. Things really started to pick up once the 2015 season started. He filled out 25 of the 30 MLB team questionnaires. He started getting calls from scouts in April all the way up until about a week before the draft. The scouts wanting to know if ‘X’ amount of money would satisfy him.

So let’s talk about how the draft-signing bonus works.

All fifteen teams that Matt talked to on the phone pre-draft told him that he was no doubt a Top 10 round pick. Well, he ended up going in the 12^th round. Which is still great but not what he had been thinking since April.

Back to the signing bonus: Major League Baseball sets slot amounts for each pick in the Top 10 rounds.

The amounts are set because teams cannot go over their total signing bonus pool. If teams go over the allotted bonus pool amount, they have to pay a luxury tax depending on how much the team goes over.

The Dodgers total signing bonus pool for 2015 was $7,781,700…meaning they could not over that total amount for their Top 10 selections. After the Top 10 rounds, each draftee can sign for up to $100K, and if a selection in rounds 11-40 are given more than $100K, the overage amount is deducted from the total bonus pool amount for the Top 10 rounds. Sounds easy enough, right?

Wrong. The reality is that college juniors, high schoolers and other draft eligible kids that are not college seniors are offered insane amounts of money. Why? So, they will sign to go play pro ball and not go to college or go back to school. Which is fine. I understand that reasoning.

What I don’t understand is how any high school ball player is worth $6.2 million dollars. Brendan Rodgers, the third pick in the draft this year, just graduated high school and is slotted at that amount of money, meaning he got that if not more trying to get him signed. What has he proved?! That he can play on the USA high school team and compete against other talented high school players. Okay, well you have other college players that have been doing that on the collegiate level for three or four years. And that is why two college juniors were taken over him in the draft. But still does not explain why a majority of the top picks are high school players.

There was a stat that I saw on MLB Opening Day this season that read:

2015 MLB Opening Day Rosters

4-year college: 397

High school: 204

International: 197

2-year college: 69

That speaks volumes about who the true successful draftees are.

As LeBron James said after Game 3 of the NBA Finals, “Experience is the best teacher.”

What happens is college seniors get the low end. Teams know they can offer seniors basically nothing because seniors have no leverage. Seniors can’t say, “Well, that is not enough money for me, so either give me more money or I’ll go to school.” Seniors are the escape for the clubs to escape going over that total signing bonus pool.

A scout told Matt that he was going to be offered a $1,000 signing bonus. Now, it was never about the money to Matt (he would play for nothing), but CMON! That’s ridiculous. You’re going to offer a .382 BA, 12 HR, 76 RBI, First Team All-OVC, All-American senior that has had four years of collegiate and three summers of wood-bat league experience ONE-THOUSAND DOLLARS to come play in your organization. I HAVE MORE THAN THAT IN MY SAVINGS ACCOUNT. Heck, I could have paid him double than that to not go play and just stay with me. HAHA (He would never do that, and I would never offer that; BUT I think you get my point.)

So, what I am trying to say is that the draft and the MLB is a business. It’s a business game in all reality. Who can teams sign for little to no money, so they can offer another higher prospect more money and not go over the total signing pool. But that’s just like everything else in life I guess.

Another fact: Matt was called three different times during last year’s draft. The same scout telling him that team was about to draft him. They never did. You can’t do that to a kid. It hurts me to think about how many dreams were crushed this year like Matt’s were last year. Now, Matt is in a much better position. And that was a blessing in disguise. And Matt’s signing bonus wise, he got a pretty good deal for a senior.

I just have a feeling Matt was one of the lucky seniors.

Draft Day(s): On day two of the draft, the phone calls started early. Matt was talking to five different teams that were giving him offers and telling him they wanted to take him around rounds 5-10. The scouts said they would be back in touch closer to time. Only one team called back.

Matt didn’t want to turn teams down because what if that came back to bite him in the butt? He didn’t want to over negotiate himself because what if that scared teams away? He had been told that as a senior going in the Top 10 rounds was the best way to be a high prospect in the organizations eyes. But what if going in the Top 10 rounds was not the best deal? (Btw, it wasn’t.)

Matt liked the Dodgers offer the best and made that known to other teams. Everyone was so tense during those days because we just really did not know what the best way to handle the whole situation was. Matt was afraid that a team was just going to draft him without calling and making a offer because that has happened to his teammates in the past. Luckily, we did not have to wait long on day three of the draft to hear Matt’s name. And honestly, we had no idea the Dodgers’ were about to draft him. He had not talked to that scout that day. It just happened to all work out perfectly despite all the toss-ups.

So, what’s next? Well, Matt does not unfortunately go straight to LA to play for the Dodgers…sorry, if you were hoping to tune into SportsCenter tonight to see a highlight of him hitting a dinger. Doesn’t work like that. Instead, the Dodgers have seven teams in their minor league system.

ASL: Arizona Summer league (Glendale, AZ)

Rookie: Arizona League Dodgers & Ogden Raptors (Utah)

Casino santa fe new mexico. Low A: Great Lake Loons (Michigan)

2015 Mlb Draft

2015 Mlb Draft Signing Bonus Slots