Cardinals 2016 Draft Signing Bonus Update

As of Monday, June 20, the St. Louis Cardinals have signed all 12 of their draft picks from the first 10 rounds of the 2016 First-Year Player Draft, aka Rule 4 Draft. In addition, so far they have used slot money to go over $100,000 on two later picks.

Of the initial 12, it looks like perfect symmetry, as four signing at slot value, four coming to terms for less than slot and four others receiving an over-slot bonus. The four over-slot players were given between $122,000 and $180,000 extra each. The draftee in the photo, second-rounder Connor Jones, received the largest overage. The vast majority of the savings came from 33rd overall pick Dylan Carlson signing for $559,500 under his slot value.

Note: The table below has been updated with the reported signing of 12th rounder Brady Whalen on Tuesday. $185,165 remains before draft pick penalty.

Round Name Pick value Signed plus/minus
1-23 Delvin Perez $2,222,500 $2,222,500 $0
1A-33 Dylan Carlson $1,909,500 $1,350,000 $559,500
1A-34 Dakota Hudson $1,878,000 $2,000,000 ($122,000)
2-70 Connor Jones $920,100 $1,100,000 ($179,900)
3-106 Zac Gallen $563,100 $563,100 $0
4 Jeremy Martinez $421,600 $600,000 ($178,400)
5 Walker Robbins $315,600 $450,000 ($134,400)
6 Tommy Edman $236,400 $236,400 $0
7 Andrew Knizner $185,300 $185,300 $0
8 Sam Tewes $172,900 $100,000 $72,900
9 Matt Fiedler $161,700 $100,000 $61,700
10 Danny Hudzina $156,600 $3,000 $153,600
$9,143,300 $8,910,300 $233,000
plus10 rdrs > $100K Not in totals Signed
11 John Kilichowski $100,000 $200,000 ($100,000)
12 Brady Whalen $100,000 $475,000 ($375,000)
19 Daniel Castano $100,000 $130,000 ($30,000)
1-10 pool $9,143,300 $8,910,300
1-10-unsigned all signed $0
revised pool $9,143,300
105% total $9,600,465
“extra” $457,165
+/- all ($272,000)
no pick loss $185,165

When all the puts and takes are added up, the Cardinals underspent by $233,000 over the first 10 rounds. However, they used $130,000 of that to get their 11th and 19th rounders to sign.

In addition to the $103,000 of pool money remaining, clubs can spend over their allocation by up to five percent before incurring a loss of their first-round draft pick the next year. That adds a potential $457,165 to the Cardinals’ signing war chest, for a total of $560,165.

From the Roster Matrix here at The Cardinal Nation Blog, here is the list of 11 unsigned draftees, with their draft round following. How this $560,165 is used to bring one or more of them on board remains to be seen. Again, any bonuses over $100,000 would have to count against this remaining total.

Four Three high schoolers are among the unsigned – 12th round shortstop Brady Whalen (Washington), 21st round outfielder Cade Cabbiness (Oklahoma), 31st round second baseman J.D. Murders (Missouri) and the last player selected in the entire draft, outfielder Jeremy Ydens from California.

Draft unsigned (11) (10)

P P C 1B 2B SS 3B OF
Ellis (17) Krall (L 28) Davis (15) Whalen (12) Cabbiness (21)
Burgmann (30) Murders (31) Crowe (23)
Lamb (35) Bond (39)
Ydens (40)

To go deeper on any of the Cardinals’ 42 draftees, check out this in-depth article at The Cardinal Nation.

(Note that the signings of Jones and Gallen have not yet been formally announced by the Cardinals. Their bonuses, as in all of the other cases, were disclosed by Jim Callis of MLB.com.)

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