Report: Braves first wave of draft signings reveals curious details of their draft strategy

The Atlanta Braves moved swiftly to get six of their top-ten picks signed and offered insight into their planning for the draft.

Atlanta Braves second pick of the 2025 Rule 4 Draft, Alex Lodise, is official an Atlanta Brave. | Cory Knowlton-Imagn Image

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The Atlanta Braves always seem to get their draft picks signed quickly, and this year was no exception. While fans were still talking about the All-Star game, the Braves were getting their top-three draft picks, as well as slots 9, 10, and 11, to sign on the dotted line.

Every year, teams receive a bonus pool for the first ten rounds of the Rule 4 Draft, with suggested bonuses for each slot in the first ten rounds.

The suggested slot bonus isn’t mandatory; clubs may divide it up any way they want, as long as they don’t exceed their total pool by more than 5% and they sign all ten picks. Failing to sign a pick from the first ten rounds earns the club a compensation pick in the next draft, but costs the club the suggested bonus for that slot. When the Braves failed to sign Carter Stewart, currently plying his trade in Japan, they lost nearly $5 million from the pool.

Braves draft order and bonus pool management maximized their ability to get quantity and quality

The Braves were given a $9,081,100 draft bonus pool for 2025 that increases to $9,535,155 when considering the 5% they’re allowed to exceed the pool. If a team exceeds the pool faces a series of extreme penalties including the loss of draft picks. In the 13 seasons this system’s been in place, only the Twins and the Rockies have never exceeded their pool, but no team has exceeded the 5% limit.

Clubs may also include a $2,500 signing contingency bonus when the contract is executed. Some teams give it on top of the signing bonus, some don’t bother with it, and some – I suspect most, but there’s no data on that – use it as part of the overall bonus to get more for their pool money. So, if a number looks odd, it’s likely because of the added contingency bonus.

Top Three Prospects Sign

According to Baseball America, the Braves announced the six signings.

First round pick Tate Southisene signed for $2,622,500, $1,361,400 below MLB’s suggested $3,983,900 slot value.
Second round pick Alex Lodise signed for $1,297,500, $225,700 below MLB’s suggested $1,523,200 slot value.
Third round pick Cody Miller signed for $297,500, $498,500 below MLB’s suggested $796,000 slot value.
Eighth pick Carter Lovasz signed for $7,500, $211,200 below MLB’s suggested $218,000 slot value.
Logan Braunschweig signed for $2,500, $196,700 below MLB’s suggested $199,200 slot value.
Kade Woods signed for $2,500, $186,100 below MLB’s suggested $188,600 slot value.

I’ll save you the math. Today, the Braves have saved $1,304,300 from their draft bonus pool to use elsewhere. This begs two questions: why would players sign under slot, and where will the Braves spend the money?

The first questions aren’t that complicated. Lovasz, Braunschweig, and Woods weren’t ranked, even in BA’s 500 deep list. They signed for a chance to play for the Braves and get selected in the first ten rounds. They could have waited and taken a chance on being an undrafted Free agent (UDFA), but while a UDFA bonus can be as high as $150K, most are well under that, and many come in under $1,000. Why wait?

Make no mistake, the Braves aren’t flushing money down the bowl, they scouted these players, and believe they are talented enough to get a shot. But when you’re drafting in and after the 20s, it’s about getting the best players at a cost that’s within your budget, and that may require making hard choices.

Getting the Players You Want

A prep player who’s signaling that he’s open to going to college unless he gets the right bonus, a team that’s drafting late needs to be creative to convince the player to sign. If a team sees a skill they desire, like a power bat who can hit velocity, they might be inclined to suggest an over-slot offer.

BA’s pre-draft scouting report notes that, “(Briggs McKenzie) is committed to LSU, but was getting late first-round buzz early in the spring and should still fit as a top-two-rounds arm.” If you’re getting first-round buzz, it’s probably going to take an over-slot bonus to convince you to bypass college.

McKenzie sat at 69th in Pipeline’s top-250 prospect list and 46th in BA’s top-500, and it’s realistic to imagine he’d expect a bonus closer to the top of the first round than the middle of the fourth, so I suspect a large portion of the moved save will end up with him especially with that college commitment.

In my last post, I noted that Essenburg has already shown he can deal with velocity, something the Braves need. However, he could continue playing on both sides of the ball at Kentucky, so an over-slot offer might be required. Essenburg was 183 on the BA list and 221 on Pipeline’s, not as high as McKenzie, but he may well get a bump from the savings as well.

That’s a Wrap

Since becoming Atlanta’s GM and PoBO, Alex Anthopoulos has made a few questionable choices, notably the 2018 draft as a whole. If all goes reasonably well, the Braves will net four or five solid players to bolster the system as well as the active roster as soon as 2026.

The Braves also added another UDFA today, Will Eldridge, a RHRP out of Indiana University. As draft and UDFA signings progress, we’ll keep you informed here at House That Hank Built.