Team with best Draft haul to get Top 30 overhaul

June 27th, 2019

The top three Draft picks all have inked pro contacts now that Oregon State catcher Adley Rutschman signed with the Orioles on Monday and California first baseman Andrew Vaughn finalized his deal with the White Sox on Wednesday. All three of them broke bonus records.

Rutschman (No. 1 overall) received $8.1 million, eclipsing the all-time Draft record of $8 million set by Gerrit Cole in 2011, when the Pirates selected him with the first choice. Texas high school shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (No. 2 overall, Royals) turned pro for $7,787,400 and surpassed the prep mark of $7.5 million set by another Kansas City draftee, Bubba Starling, the fifth overall selection in 2011. Vaughn's $7,221,200 bonus not only is the highest in White Sox history (beating the $6,582,000 Carlos Rodon got at No. 3 in 2014), but also is the largest ever for a position player who doesn't play up the middle (topping the $6,708,400 Kris Bryant landed from the Cubs at No. 2 in 2013).

Here's the complete list of $7 million bonuses in the Draft:

Adley Rutschman, C, Orioles, 2019 (No. 1): $8,100,000
Gerrit Cole, RHP, Pirates, 2011 (No. 1): $8,000,000
Bobby Witt, SS, Royals, 2019 (No. 2): $7,787,400
Stephen Strasburg, RHP, Nationals, 2009 (No. 1): $7,500,000*
Bubba Starling, OF, Royals, 2011 (No. 5): $7,500,000+
Casey Mize, RHP, Tigers, 2018 (No. 1): $7,500,000
Hunter Greene, RHP, Reds, 2017 (No. 2): $7,230,000
Andrew Vaughn, 1B, White Sox, 2019 (No. 3): $7,221,200
Joey Bart, C, Giants, 2018 (No. 2): $7,025,000
Brendan McKay, 1B/LHP, Rays, 2017 (No. 4): $7,005,000
Kyle Wright, RHP, Braves, 2017 (No. 5): $7,000,000

*Part of major league contract.

+Bonus spread over multiple years via two-sport athlete rule.

Mike Rosenbaum officially handles our D-backs Top 30, so he'll get the final call when we overhaul all of our prospects lists between the Draft signing deadline and the Trade Deadline next month. But I'm already on record as writing that Arizona had the best Draft this June, no surprise considering it had seven of the first 75 selections. I think all seven of those guys will wind up on the Top 30, and others could make a case.

Eyeballing the current list, I'd put all four first-rounders (Washington high school outfielder Corbin Carroll, Florida prep right-hander Brennan Malone, North Carolina high school left-hander Blake Walston and Ball State righty Drey Jameson) in the Top 10. Michigan lefty Tommy Henry (supplemental second round) would fit in the middle of the list, while Oregon righty Ryne Nelson (second) and Arkansas outfielder Dominic Fletcher (supplemental second) would go in the back half somewhere.

The Diamondbacks also gave well-over-slot bonuses to California high school shortstop Glenallen Hill Jr. ($850,000 in the fourth round) and Indiana prep left-hander Avery Short ($922,500 in the 12th round), so they also could find a home on the Top 30. For more on this question and more Draft candidates for the list, peruse the video at the top of this Inbox.

The Padres made Campusano the first catcher selected in the 2017 Draft, signing him out of a Georgia high school for $1.3 million in the second round. He's developing into one of the best catching prospects in baseball, projecting as a big league regular who should contribute on both sides of the ball and possessing the ceiling of an All-Star.

Campusano is batting .326/.398/.515 with eight homers in 62 games in high Class A, and while the California League is hitter-friendly, he's young for the circuit at age 20 and his offensive potential is legitimate. He's leading the league in hitting, his bat speed and strength give him 20-homer potential and he controls the strike zone very well. Defensively, he has a strong arm and continues to improve his receiving.

Since the Draft, I've gotten a lot of questions wondering why seniors often sign for $10,000 or less in the first 10 rounds. Many of you were incredulous when the Mets signed Mississippi State outfielder Jake Mangum, the Southeastern Conference's all-time hits leader, for $20,000 in the fourth round.

College seniors with no eligibility have zero leverage. The very best of them can earn six-figure bonuses -- North Carolina State first baseman Evan Edwards got $122,500 from the Marlins in the fourth round and Rice left-hander Evan Kravetz landed $112,500 from the Reds in the fifth -- but they're the exceptions. If they want to play professional baseball, most of them have to accept a minimal bonus.

Despite a stellar college career, Mangum got dinged for being 23 years old, which is ancient by baseball standards for someone entering pro ball. He was Draft-eligible in both 2017 and 2018 and could have received a six-figure bonus in either year if he had been willing to sign where teams valued him.

This is a matter of supply and demand rather than seniors getting penalized. That said, there is a change I would like to see that would reduce the number of seniors who get pushed into the top 10 rounds to save money against the bonus pools.

Under the current rules, if any player doesn't sign in the first 10 rounds, his team loses the value of his pick from its pool. But unsigned players from the fourth round or higher don't yield compensation choices in the following Draft, so I'd give each club the same amount of money ($2 million) for the fourth through 10th rounds and they'd get to use all of it even if some of those selections didn't sign. That would lessen the need to take cheap college seniors to push the savings to other players.