Giants sign 2nd overall pick Joey Bart for record $7.025 million

While the 2018 MLB Draft is already well over, there is the pesky matter of each team signing as many of their picks as possible. Fortunately, early round picks are far more certain to sign under the existing draft rules than in years past due to the importance of preserving a team’s bonus pool. Teams have a strong sense of what draftees are looking for in terms of price and, as a result, is very uncommon for players selected in the first 10 rounds to not sign.

As a result, most of the intrigue regarding whether a player will or will not sign is largely left to the round 11-40 picks, but that doesn’t mean there will not be some surprises along the way in terms of how much individual players receive and the Giants delivered on that with the signing bonus for 2nd overall pick, catcher Joey Bart out of Georgia Tech.

With the Giants giving Bart the largest bonus ever given to a position player selected in the MLB Draft, the market is now set for position players selected in the first round. Alec Bohm, the third overall pick, had already signed with Phillies for a signing bonus rumored to be around $6 million, but many first round picks have yet officially sign with their teams.

Signing Bart to such a large deal does not mean that the Giants don’t have some bonus pool wiggle room. The slot value for the 2nd overall pick was $7,494,600 which means that the Giants saved $450,000 of their bonus pool space that they can use to help sign other picks.