2021 MLB Draft Day Three discussion thread

Day Three of the 2021 MLB Draft begins at 11:00 a.m. Central time today, July 13, 2021. Rounds 11 through 20 will be conducted today. This is the final day of the draft.

The Rangers will have the second pick in each round today. As a reminder, after the tenth round, there are no bonus pool amounts associated with the picks, so a team doesn’t lose bonus pool money if they fail to sign a pick the way they do with picks in the first ten rounds. However, any player taken after the tenth round who receives more than a $125,000 bonus has the amount in excess of $125,000 applied to the existing bonus pool. Thus, if you sign all your picks in the first ten rounds for $500,000 under slot money, you can pay every player you pick from the 11th through 20th rounds up to $125,000, plus you have up to $500,000 you can spend above and beyond $125,000 on a player or players taken after the 10th round.

(Yes, technically, you can spend up to 5% over your bonus pool amount and just pay a 75% tax on the overage, which many teams regularly do. At more than 5% you start losing draft picks, beginning with a first rounder if you exceed 5%. Given no one wants to give up a first rounder to go 6% over their bonus pool, this effectively works as a hard cap.)

The Rangers, as they typically do, took a couple of guys early on Day Two that will require overslot bonuses, and take a number of guys later in Day Two who will sign for minimal bonuses. I would guess they have some money left over to use on players on Day Three who fell out of the first ten rounds but will want more than $125,000 to sign. Some recent examples of such players include:

Ricky Vanasco — $200K as a 15th rounder in 2017

Tyler Phillips — $160K as a 16th rounder in 2015

Marc Church — $300K as an 18th rounder in 2019

Prior to 2020, undrafted free agents were subject to the same signing rules as players selected after the tenth round — up to $125,000 could be spent without it applying to the bonus pool, with any amount over that coming from the bonus pool funds available to be spent. In 2020, UDFAs were capped at $20,000. I believe that the old rules are in place for UDFAs in 2021, but I haven’t confirmed that definitively yet.

Here is who the Rangers have selected so far in the draft:

1st — Jack Leiter

2nd — Aaron Zavala

3rd — Cameron Cauley

4th — Ian Moller

5th — Mitch Bratt

6th — Chase Lee

7th — Bradford Webb

8th — Larson Kindreich

9th — Liam Hicks

10th — C.J. Widger