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Draft  | Signing Bonuses | 5/12/2011

Draft Bonuses – Ten-Year Evolution

From 1965 to 2005, How Things Have Changed
 
How much has baseball’s signing-bonus structure changed through the years? Look no further than the evolution of first-round bonuses since 1965, the first year of Major League Baseball’s first-year player draft, to developments in the last several years.
 
No aspect of society as we know it may have seen a more-graphic case of runaway inflation.
 
We’ve identified signing bonuses to first-round draft picks over 10-year increments, beginning with the original draft 46 years ago, and concluding with the 2005 draft. Just comparing the $100,000 bonus that Arizona State outfielder Rick Monday received as baseball’s very first draft to the one that Virginia high-school infielder Justin Upton as the top pick in 2005, a cool $6.1 million, points out how bonuses have spiked through the years. Monday’s bonus was mere pocket change to Upton.
 
In addition to the signing bonuses paid out to first-round picks in 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995 and 2005, we’re also providing lists of bonuses paid to draft picks in the first 10 rounds from 2006 to 2010, which are more relevant to the 2011 process.
 
Not only is it interesting to review the evolution of bonus payments through the years, but we’ve conveniently picked some of the most noteworthy first rounds over the life of the draft.
 
Obviously, 1965 speaks for itself as it was baseball’s very first foray into the draft. The National Football League (1936), National Basketball Association (1947) and National Hockey League (1963) had already defaulted to a player draft as a systematic means to distribute amateur talent, and Major League Baseball finally decided to follow suit as the only way to curb escalating signing bonuses.
 
Both the 1985 and 2005 drafts are generally regarded as two of the most productive drafts in history, and a quick review of the bounty of talent taken in the first round in both years provides compelling evidence.
 
The 1975 draft, by contrast, may have been the weakest draft in history. Of the 24 first-round picks that year, only 12 went on to play in the big leagues. Four of the first five selections never made it, and even Southern University catcher Danny Goodwin, who was taken first overall in both the 1971 and 1975 drafts, was considered a bust, of sorts, as he never caught a single inning in the big leagues. How messed up was the 1975 draft? Future Hall of Fame outfielder Andre Dawson was an obscure 11th-round pick that year.
 
As for 1995, that hardly qualifies on the surface as one of the greatest drafts ever, though it did produce notable first-round picks like righthanders Kerry Wood (4th pick, Cubs) and Roy Halladay (17th pick, Blue Jays), and first baseman Todd Helton (8th, Rockies), who still remain active in the big leagues.
 
But that year is noteworthy in the evolution of the draft as it opened up a can of worms when righthander Ariel Prieto (5th pick, Athletics), a recent Cuban defectee, was included in the draft process. As a foreign player, Prieto had the right to sign with any club, but he inadvertently made himself subject to the much more restrictive draft process by taking up residency in the United States following his defection, and playing for an independent minor league club in the weeks leading up to the 1995 draft.
 
One year later, the fallout from Prieto’s ill-advised decision came to roost as it led to the infamous “loophole draft.”
 
Bonus payments in the mid-90s were already in the midst of a significant upward spiral and agents, mindful that Prieto, as a foreigner, didn’t leverage his unique situation to the fullest, began looking for other loopholes in the draft process to exploit. The 1996 draft subsequently saw four first-round picks take advantage of a little-known draft rule, regarding the proper tendering of contracts, and they ended up filing a grievance and were granted free agency.
 
They were free to sign with any big-league club, and the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays took full advantage of an unexpected windfall opportunity to sign some premium talent that was not otherwise afforded them.
 
When all the dust settled in the fall of 1996, the Diamondbacks handed first baseman Travis Lee a $10 million bonus (five times the largest bonus ever given to a domestic talent), and the Devil Rays trumped that a short time later by signing righthander Matt White for $10.2 million. The fallout from those unforeseen developments was significant, and it has not been lost on baseball officials that White never played a single game in the big leagues.
 
So while it is interesting to explore the increase in signing bonuses in drafts 10 years apart, from 1965 to 2005, the more intriguing storylines might actually be the twists and turns of those drafts themselves.

Draft | Rankings | 12/24/2025

Top 2027 Collegiate Draft Prospects

Isaiah Burrows
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With the 2025 cycle officially behind us and the calendar nearly flipping over to 2026, it is time to start looking ahead to the future. More importantly, start looking ahead to the next season of college baseball and what that may mean for draft-eligible players with big dreams of continuing their journey. While the 2026 MLB Draft is now on the horizon, we are looking ahead to the future even further – to see which players have already made impacts upon their arrival to college campuses. We have already dropped our 2028 Top 75 collegiate prospects board, but this one is our Top 100 college prospects who will be eligible for the 2027 class. These are the Top 100 players in our eyes for this group, and many of them have already shown up on campus and been impactful in many ways. Whether its our top-ranked player in Oregon State’s Dax Whitney or ninth-ranked William Schmidt...
High School | General | 12/24/2025

2025 Year In Review: High School

Cam McElwaney
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IMG Academy Takes Home the National Title Every year IMG Academy comes into the spring with top-to-bottom one of the top rosters in the country and every year have the expectation of winning the national championship. Well in 2025 they did just that after finishing the spring 24-1, winning the High School Showdown, and winning 15 straight games to end their season. Their high end offensive ability was on full display throughout the year and they will once again be one of the most talented teams in the country in ’26 as they look to go back-to-back. Two Top-10 Picks in the MLB Draft Headline National Players of the Year It was another loaded crop that took home the National Players of the Year as both Ethan Holliday, the National Player of the Year, and Seth Hernandez, National Pitcher of the Year, heard their names called within the first-10 picks in the MLB Draft. Another first...
Draft | Rankings | 12/23/2025

Top 2028 Collegiate Draft Prospects

Vincent Cervino
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The college players in the 2028 draft class have yet to step on campus, but they're positioned to make an immediate impact. Several high end talents either turned down significant money last year or honored strong college commitments, resulting in their arrival on campus this fall. The class is currently led by a trio of high-upside arms in Jack Bauer, Angel Cervantes, and Cameron Appenzeller. They are followed by a deep group of bats that rounds out a strong, high end Top-10. Rk. Name Level Pos. B-T School Hometown State 1 Jack Bauer C LHP L-L Mississippi State Frankfort IL 2 Angel Cervantes C RHP R-R UCLA Lynwood CA 3 Cameron Appenzeller C LHP L-L Tennessee Springfield IL 4 Brayden Jaksa C C R-R Oregon Fremont  CA 5 JD Stein C SS R-R Wake Forest Carmel IN 6 Mason Ligenza C OF L-L Pittsburgh Brockton PA 7 Ty Peeples C OF L-R Georgia Lavonia GA 8 Lucas Franco C SS L-R TCU Katy TX 9...
Juco | Story | 12/23/2025

2025 Year in Review: JUCO

Blaine Peterson
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Looking Back at the 2025 Top 10  Matt Barr (‘25 Niagara, ‘26 Minnesota Twins) Bursting onto the scene last winter, footage of an indoor bullpen rocketed Barr onto the radar of many. Explosive fastball reaches near triple digits with incredible spin numbers across the secondaries. Huge numbers at Niagara earned him the title of the first Juco player drafted in 2025. JC Vanek (‘25 Chipola, ‘26 Kansas City Royals) Just a professional hitter. Vanek for two years at Chipola was an impossible out. While there are questions if the power will ever reach what it takes to play first base at the big league level, the bat and quality defensive skillset at first base may carry. Donovan Becerra (‘25 New Mexico, ‘26 Texas Tech) One of the more high octane arms anywhere in the country last year. Can reach back for upper 90’s and has shown serious swing and...
Draft | Story | 12/22/2025

2025 Year in Review: Draft

Isaiah Burrows
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2025 Year in Review: Draft We’ve reached the end of the 2025 calendar year, and while we’ve already jumped in on the 2026 cycle with some of the fall events and post-draft content we’ve had here at Perfect Game, there’s still one more piece on the docket, and that’s the 2025 Year-In-Review piece here from the PG Draft staff.  The 2025 MLB Draft took place in July, when many highly talented players heard their names called and continued their journey through the game to the next level. There’s already been some of those names making noise in the minors and guys who are moving up prospect lists and becoming names to know for MLB fans digging deep into the future of their organizations. While we are going to “close the book” on 2025 with this article, these players still have many years ahead of them, and many blank pages to continue...
College | Recruiting | 12/22/2025

Recruiting Notebook: December 22

Jheremy Brown
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Lucien Saint Cyr, INF, Class of 2026 Commitment: Bucknell Saint Cyr announced his pledge to Bucknell, giving the Bison an interesting blend of present tools and projection. Saint Cyr stands 6-foot-1 and offers room to fill in his medium frame, profiling in the middle infield defensively. The New York product starts wide at the base in the right-handed box, keeping his hands high behind the ear. He works into a subtle outward step load, firing through a compact barrel that showcases bat speed and gap-to-gap impact. For head coach Scott Heather and Bucknell, they land a high-quality Northeast infielder in the ’26 cycle, adding to a class that takes the quality over quantity approach. Patrick Diaz ('26, NY) 102 EV off the bat. Impact to the pull side. #PGNational @PGMidAtlantic @PG_Uncommitted pic.twitter.com/NN0L3FRdO9 — PG Showcases (@PGShowcases) July 9, 2025 Patrick Diaz,...
High School | General | 12/19/2025

Huntington Beach HS World Series Recap

Steve Fiorindo
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MVPitcher: Duncan McLeod The uncommitted junior toed the slab in three of the four games for Team Mick, tossing 3 2/3 innings.  Zero walks, zero hits and 6 punchouts for the lefty who was used both as a starter in the series clinching game 4 and he closed out game 3 on Friday in quick fashion.  McLeod was very efficient as well, needing just 42 pitches over all his outings.  In the game 4 start, over two innings he punched out 3, with one strikeout with all of his offerings.  The mid 80’s fastball regularly played up, set up with efficient use of the secondaries, with the breaking ball 73/74 and fading change-up 72-74.   Owen Bone (2026) at it again... Solo shot in the 5th to tie things up. Back to back days with a home run for Bone. #PGHS pic.twitter.com/2JC9qETI5h — Perfect Game California (@California_PG) December 13, 2025 MV Hitter: ...
Tournaments | Story | 12/19/2025

13u Tourney All-American Team

Jheremy Brown
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What a year it was in 2025 on the national landscape at the 13u level as Perfect Game continues to expand its reach around the country, providing an even bigger schedule of events coast-to-coast which has allowed players all over show out and gain their deserved recognition. Whether in Texas for the Houston 1000 or the 13u WWBA in West Palm Beach, we saw huge, eye opening performances from the players placed below, knowing that we could EASILY build a third team and likely a fourth without much effort.  As we do every year with this exercise, it's worth pointing out the trickiness of this age group and putting the teams together with the 13u group. While the players are all members of the Class of 2030, some are younger for the grade, which allowed them to play at the 12u level where's it's a smaller field, shorter mound distance and different bats, so we'll separate them out and...
Tournaments | Story | 12/18/2025

14u Tourney All-American Team

Tyler Russo
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Player of the Year: Asher Williams It was an incredible year for Williams that was rewarded with a trip to the 14U Select Fest, before some more impressive play in the fall. He came to the plate almost 250 times in PG tournaments throughout 2025 and reached base in well over half of them, hitting to a .500 AVG while slugging a 14U circuit best 12 bombs and driving in 113 runs. The numbers on the surface are ridiculous, but when you look at the high-level events he put them up in, it makes it even more impressive. Pitcher of the Year: Tristan Blalock Blalock earns this honor after a dominant 2025 where he struck out 85 batters in just 48.2 innings of work with a minuscule 1.58 ERA. This included several strong performances at many national level tournaments and showcases where he was able to bully some of the best hitters in the country. It’s hard not to fall in love with...
Draft | Story | 12/18/2025

PG Draft: Gut Feel Guys

Tyler Henninger
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While we are nearing the turn of the calendar to the 2026 year, that means we are just inching closer to the beginning of the season for many high school players and college baseball is on the horizon. We are prepping for a reshuffle of the 2026 MLB Draft Board as well here amongst the PG Draft staff. But before we get to that, we sat down and have each picked a couple of players who are in the mix to get selected in a couple of different buckets.  We have prospects who could go into the Top 30 picks or so, prospects who could be selected in the Top 5 rounds, and prospects who could go inside of the Top 10 rounds. With the draft quite far down the road and a lot of re-shuffling to be done as these players play themselves into certain spots on the draft board, our scouts picked some players who fit into these “buckets” who are gut-feel guys. These are the guys that our PG...
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