SF Giants to have 5th-lowest bonus pool in 2024 MLB draft

The MLB draft is still several months away but one detail has recently been settled. According to MLB.Com, each team's bonus pool has been set, confirming that the SF Giants will have the fifth-lowest bonus pool at $7.5 million.

SF Giants to have 5th-lowest bonus pool in 2024 MLB draft

The only teams behind them are the Philadelphia Phillies ($7.4 million), Texas Rangers ($6.9 million), Los Angeles Dodgers ($6.1 million), and Houston Astros ($5.9 million). Teams can exceed their bonus pool by five percent while only paying a tax on the overage, which is a policy that the Giants commonly follow. Each team's bonus pool is heavily influenced by the first round, but players chosen after that round can still receive substantial bonuses as well.

For example, Giants 2023 second-round pick Walker Martin agreed to a signing bonus of nearly $3 million, which was well above the slot value of $1.6 million. Similarly, 2020 third-round pick Kyle Harrison received a $2.5 million signing bonus, which was significantly above the slot value of $710,000.

The Giants hold the No. 13 pick in the 2024 draft. This is due in part to their 79-83 record in 2023. Baseball recently implemented a lottery-style system for determining the draft order. Teams who do not make the playoffs, including the Giants, enter into that lottery to set the draft order. For the Giants, the No. 13 pick holds a slot value of $5.2 million, or about 70 percent of their total slot value.

The Giants were one of the more aggressive teams in free agency this past offseason. Adding players like Matt Chapman, Blake Snell, and Jung Hoo Lee should improve the 2024 roster. However, that spending comes with a cost as well. Both Chapman and Snell rejected qualifying offers from the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres, respectively.

In signing Chapman, the Giants forfeited their second-round pick and $500,00 in international bonus pool money. In signing Snell, they lost their third-round pick and an additional $500,00 in international bonus pool money. Not only do they lose the pick, they lose the slot value that is assigned to those picks, thereby limiting their creativity.

So, the Giants will pick in the first round and will not pick again until the fourth round. This is expected to be a weaker draft and the Giants believe that their farm system will begin to produce a stream of players to the major league roster. For the time being, the Giants' scouting department will spend the next several months preparing for the draft with the hopes of landing a key player in the first round.