MLB Draft 2025: Signing Bonus Slot Values for First Round Picks

The Washington Nationals selected high school shortstop Eli Willits with the No. 1 overall pick in Sunday’s MLB Draft. Willits, who doesn’t turn 18 until December, is the youngest player selected first since the Seattle Mariners took Ken Griffey Jr. in 1987.

Washington was in position to select Willits after winning the draft lottery in December, despite having only the fourth-best odds to do so—Miami and Colorado had the best odds but fell to seventh and fourth, respectively. The top pick came with a draft slot value of $11,075,900.

Baseball’s slot values offer some wiggle room, unlike rookie contracts in the NFL and NBA, where first-round picks are tied to those leagues’ salary caps and are largely set in stone. NFL teams have the option to sign first-round picks below their draft slot amount but never do. NBA teams can sign first-rounders to contracts that range from 80% to 120% of their slot value, but the agreements are almost always at the max level.

Cam Ward signed a four-year, $48.4 million contract with the Tennessee Titans. Cooper Flagg’s contract with the Dallas Mavericks is worth $62.7 million over four years, although only the first two years are guaranteed.

Compare those to Travis Bazzana, last year’s top pick by the Cleveland Guardians, who received an $8.95 million bonus, 15% lower than the $10.57 million slot value. The Pittsburgh Pirates gave Paul Skenes a $9.2 million bonus, 5% below his slot in 2023. A year before that, Jackson Holliday received an $8.19 million bonus from the Baltimore Orioles, 10% lower than the $9.05 million slot value.

Every pick in the first 10 rounds is assigned a slot value, and a team’s total bonus pool is the sum of those slot values. The Orioles have the highest pool this year at $19.1 million, followed by the Mariners ($17.1 million), Los Angeles Angels ($16.7 million) and Nationals ($16.6 million). The New York Yankees rank last at $5.4 million after MLB lowered their top pick 10 spots for exceeding the second surcharge threshold of the luxury tax, and they also forfeited their second-round pick for signing free agent Max Fried.

When teams sign players below their slot values, it frees up more room to go over slot to sign a high school player who might choose college over a smaller signing bonus. Those negotiations sometimes happen before draft night. Willits was a surprise pick at the top of the draft, as the consensus top two picks were high school infielder Ethan Holliday and LSU pitcher Kade Anderson. They went third and fourth.

Last week, the Nationals fired general manager Mike Rizzo, who led their baseball operations for 17 years. Manager Davey Martinez was also fired last week.

Players selected after the 10th round can be signed for up to $125,000 without the bonus being applied toward the pool allotment, but anything over $125,000 is part of the pool. Last year, the Angels gave 11th-round pick Trey Gregory-Alford a $1.96 million bonus.

The total 2025 bonus pool for the 30 teams is $350 million, up 4.8% from the prior year, which is tied to the growth of MLB revenues. Teams often exceed their bonus allotment but never by more than 5%; up to 5%, the penalty is simply a 75% tax on any overage. Teams face a steeper penalty at higher thresholds, including the loss of draft picks. Spending 5% to 10% above the bonus pool threshold costs a first-round pick, and the penalty reaches two first-round picks at 15%.

In the minor leagues, rookie-level minimum salaries are $20,430 this year, while Triple-A is $36,590. The minimum annual salary in the majors is $760,000 in 2025.

The draft continues Monday afternoon with rounds four through 20.