With the July 15 signing deadline for (non-senior) players taken by Major League Baseball clubs in the 2016 First-Year Player Draft almost a week in the rear-view mirror, this post is to summarize the final spending results against the pool allocation by the St. Louis Cardinals. This is, of course, based on the best information from sources such as Baseball America and MLB.com, as clubs do not announce signing amounts themselves.
| 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) |
| 31 | J.D. Murders | $100,000 | $200,000 | ($100,000) |
| 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 | ($372,000) | |||
| no pick loss | extra $ left | $85,165 |
As the table indicates, the Cardinals finished with just over $85,000 remaining before they would have crossed the 105 percent of budget threshold, costing them a 2017 draft pick.
Of their 12 picks covered by the pool allocation of $9,143,300, four received slot value, four signed at value and four received extra. In addition, four players taken after round 10 received more than $100,000 each, with the overage applying against the pool amount.
The Cardinals could have contained the over spending for three of the latter group – John Kilichowski (11th round, pictured), Daniel Castano (19th) and J.D. Murders (31st) – with the savings from the top 10 rounds alone. In this view, all of the extra spending over the budget went to 12th rounder Brady Whalen.
There are other ways to potentially spin the Cardinals spending.
Though it was apparently not planned that way, I find it interesting that the roughly $560K saved from signing high schooler Dylan Carlson in the first round very closely approximated the extra money spent on the other three other prep players taken after him and signed – Walker Robbins, Whalen and the last player to ink his deal, Murders.
The roughly $300,000 saved going under slot on the eighth, ninth and 10th rounders was significant – roughly enough to cover the over-slot amounts given to first- and second-round picks Dakota Hudson and Connor Jones.
Overall, the Cardinals signed 34 of their 42 drafted, with the club retaining rights to two college seniors – pitcher Matt Ellis (17th round) and outfielder J.D. Crowe (23rd) for the next year.
It is also interesting that the club spent $75,000 last week to sign a non-drafted junior, infielder Matt Davis as a free agent. This occurred right as the books closed on the draft. Perhaps they decided to almost fully empty their piggy bank.
(As a reminder, you can see all signed and unsigned draftees as well as the clubs which the former have joined at the Roster Matrix, here at The Cardinal Nation Blog.)
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