The Texas Rangers 2015 draft pool is projected at $9,469,174, according to the latest numbers from Baseball America.
With James Shields -- the last free agent with draft pick compensation attached -- having signed, we now have the final draft order for the 2015 MLB draft. The Rangers have the 4th, 45th, and 78th picks overall, and then will pick third in each round from the 4th through the 40th.
BA estimates the Rangers' draft pool at just under $9.5 million, which is the fourth biggest draft pool. The Astros have by far the largest draft pool, at $17,977,283, by virtue of getting the #2 overall pick in the draft as compensation for not signing Brady Aiken last year, as well as their own regular pick, #5 overall. The Astros pool is also bolstered by getting the Marlins' competitive balance pick in the Jarred Cosart trade -- that pick is #37 overall.
The other teams with bigger pools that the Rangers are the Colorado Rockies, who pick #3 overall, as well as getting the #27 overall pick as compensation for losing Michael Cuddyer and a competitive balance pick at #38 overall, and the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have the first overall pick, as well as a competitive balance pick at #75.
The draft bonus pool is determined by aggregating the bonuses assigned to each pick a team has in the first ten rounds. Teams lose the pool money allocated to an associated pick if the team doesn't sign that player -- thus, the Astros lost the pool money associated with the #1 overall pick last year when it didn't sign Brady Aiken. The total amount of signing bonuses paid to players in the first ten rounds by a team, as well as the marginal amount of a bonus above $100,000 for any pick after the first ten rounds, is applied towards a team's draft pool. If a team exceeds its pool by up to 5%, it is taxed at 75% on the overage. If a team exceeds its pool by more than 5%, it loses future draft picks, a penalty that is so harsh that it effectively works as a hard cap of 105% on what teams pay as bonuses to their draft picks.