Giants: Biggest takeaways from Will Smith signing with Braves

The San Francisco Giants will gain a draft pick

The Giants extended a qualifying offer to Will Smith at the start of the offseason, which means they are now entitled to draft pick compensation since he has signed elsewhere.

Here’s a full explanation of how the QO compensation rules apply to the Braves for signing Smith, courtesy of MLB.com:

“A team that neither exceeded the luxury tax in the preceding season nor receives revenue sharing will lose its second-highest selection in the following year’s Draft as well as $500,000 from its international bonus pool. If it signs two such players, it will also forfeit its third-highest remaining pick. The 13 clubs that fall into this category during the 2019-20 offseason are the Angels, Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants, Mariners, Mets, Nationals, Phillies, Rangers and White Sox.”

And here’s the section that applies to the draft pick compensation the Giants will receive:

“If a team neither exceeded the luxury tax in the preceding season nor receives revenue sharing, its compensatory pick will come after Competitive Balance Round B. The value of the free agent’s new contract has no impact on the compensation pick in both of these cases.”

The pick will be somewhere in the No. 80 range, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area:

Now the focus shifts to replacing Smith at the back of the bullpen.