Major League Baseball's 2024 amateur draft will kick off on Sunday, July 14, in conjunction with the start of the annual All-Star Game festivities. The Cleveland Guardians will select No. 1 overall for the first time in franchise history. While it's too early to know who the Guardians will take, it's safe to declare the chosen player won't set a new signing bonus record.
Paul Skenes, the talented Pittsburgh Pirates rookie right-hander, established the all-time record last summer, when he signed for $9.2 million. Previously, the record had belonged to Detroit Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson, who signed for $8.42 million in 2020 after being chosen first from Arizona State.
It's notable that Torkelson was the first draftee to sign for more than the $8 million Gerrit Cole received in 2011. That was the final draft before the league installed hard caps on signing bonuses. Clearly those caps had the desired effect of reducing signing bonus expenditures.
Skenes wasn't the only player last summer to zoom past Torkelson's old mark. Washington Nationals outfielder Dylan Crews, Skenes' teammate at Louisiana State, signed for $9 million.
Here's a complete list of the 10 highest signing bonuses in the capped era:
- Paul Skenes, 2023, Pirates, $9.2 million
- Dylan Crews, 2023, Nationals, $9 million
- Spencer Torkelson, 2020, Tigers, $8.42 million
- Jackson Holliday, 2022, Orioles, $8.19 million
- Druw Jones, 2022, Diamondbacks, $8.19 million
- Adley Rutschman, 2019, Orioles, $8.10 million
- Jack Leiter, 2021, Rangers, $7.92 million
- Bobby Witt Jr., 2019, Royals, $7.79 million
- Casey Mize, 2018, Tigers, $7.50 million
- Hunter Greene, 2017, Reds, $7.23 million
The Guardians' No. 1 pick has an allotted bonus amount of $10.57 million. In turn, Cleveland has the draft's highest overall bonus pool, at more than $18.3 million. Teams that exceed their bonus pool face penalties, including an overage tax on the amounts up to 5% over. After that threshold, teams begin forfeiting future draft picks. Unsurprisingly, no team has spent more than 5% over their draft pool during the capped bonus era.
