The 2024 Philadelphia Phillies Draft Picks, UDFAs, and Signings

[julio]

You're right about Burkholder - I only looked at the first picture before (duh). I'm not convinced that the guy in the second picture is Mathison (or that it's not). I'd have to eliminate all the other draftees, and that feels like more work than I'm up for this morning!

[julio]

Well, the Phillies haven't announced it, but Griffin Burkholder is "officially" a Phillie:

... as is Carter Mathison:

[julio]

And one more! Spikerman signs:

[julio]

Spikerman's bonus:

3rd-rder John Spikerman signs w/ @Phillies for $672,500 (slot 100 = $730,500). @OU_Baseball OF, plus-plus speed, legit CF, contact/OBP profile at plate. @MLBDraft pic.twitter.com/ENYOZaHrJx

— Jim Callis ( @jimcallisMLB ) July 24, 2024

[Austinfan]

So everyone but Spencer. Not bad, 19 of 20.

[Docs]

Seems like they have a lot left - in theory how much could they offer Spencer? I'm surprised that he would get an NIL better than the money the Phillies have left over.

[julio]

Carter Mathison's signing bonus:

5th-rder Carter Mathison signs w/ @Phillies for $447,500 (slot 162 = $399,600). @IndianaBase OF, plus raw power & speed, school freshman record w/19 HR in 2022. @MLBDraft pic.twitter.com/sYNqHwXgEm

— Jim Callis ( @jimcallisMLB ) July 24, 2024

[julio]

Seems like they have a lot left - in theory how much could they offer Spencer? I'm surprised that he would get an NIL better than the money the Phillies have left over.

See the table in the top post. The Phils have $53,490 uncommitted in the "pool plus 5%." They could offer Spencer $203,490 without incurring any further penalty. I have no idea what kind of NIL money Spencer might command; also no idea whether Spencer has more than one year of remaining NCAA eligibility.

[Docs]

Thanks, i was looking at the table but probably looked at the data wrong and was thinking they had more than they do, and was also unsure if there was an additional cap on the 11-20 picks outside of staying under the pool

[julio]

Thanks, i was looking at the table but probably looked at the data wrong and was thinking they had more than they do, and was also unsure if there was an additional cap on the 11-20 picks outside of staying under the pool

Well, the table hadn’t been updated until about the time I responded to you, because we didn’t have the last bonuses until then…so if you looked at it earlier, you wouldn’t have been able to see the final amount uncommitted.

[schillingfan]

So we could offer Spencer $203,000?

[andyb]

Give or take a few. The last $2,500 in some of these announced bonuses may or may not be part of the pool.

[zambonir]

I doubt the Phillies are still trying to change Spencer's mind. Personally I would rather go live in Austin for a year and pitch for a legendary college program and a national championship winning coach than be in the low minors. And there's a UT booster out there who could probably give him a car worth half of that bonus money. If he wants a degree, even more reason.

Half the people who get drafted are ultimately just staying in baseball because they love it, not because they really think they are going to pitch in the major leagues (if they are honest with themselves). You can love it just as much trying to win a College World Series, which he was never going to do at his last school.

[Squire]

Agree that everyone who will be in is in at this point. Spencer was a miscalculation but probably not a big one. I doubt there is an UDFA worth taking our 200K at this point. It's still a meh class to me because of its relative composition but I'm always optimistic.

Surprised that Morgan and Hill were as inexpensive as they were. Had it in my mind that Day was a senior sign but he must have had eligibility because he went for slot basically.

In my mind they could have still gone Brecht-Burkholder (or maybe even Brecht-Nori if you prefer) and squeezed the money from just the 10th round (or the 6th since I'm not that high on that guy either).

[andyb]

I am not sure we can offer more than $150K to an UDFA. The pool money I believe can only be spent on draft picks.

Spencer is not a big loss. There just is not too much difference in these college prospects once you get beyond the 11th or 12th round.

[julio]

Give or take a few. The last $2,500 in some of these announced bonuses may or may not be part of the pool.

In the table up top, I've shown the bonuses as excluding the $2,500 contingency, because that's what the rules allow. The reporting of bonuses is not consistent; sometimes a source reports the bonus as a round number ($2.5 million), but another source shows that bonus as $2,497,500. (Go to the top post, check out the mlb.com list of Phils draftees vs. the Baseball America list. They're both linked.) My table assumes that the Phils have taken advantage of the $2,500 contingency exclusion for all top ten draft bonuses (because it's stupid not to do this, and Dombrowski is not stupid, and he's clearly taken advantage of this most of the time).

So the $203,490 figure I cited above represents the max they "have available" to offer Spencer, because the contingency fee is baked in for all the top ten draftees.... But I think they could actually offer Spencer $203,490 plus a $2,500 contingency, or $205,990.

I don't think it's going to matter, though. Spencer has publicly indicated he's going to Texas, and not signing. I don't see $55,990 as changing that.

[julio]

I am not sure we can offer more than $150K to an UDFA. The pool money I believe can only be spent on draft picks.

Yes, UDFAs can be offered bonuses larger than $150k, and the excess is treated the same as with players drafted in rounds 11-20. See Major League Rule 3(c)(4)(A)(iii).

[There's a link to the 2024 Major League Rules in our Baseball Links section. Also linked here for anybody interested.]

[zambonir]

I don't think it's going to matter, though. Spencer has publicly indicated he's going to Texas, and not signing. I don't see $55,990 as changing that.

For all we know the combined value of his NIL, scholarship, education and housing is still nowhere near the Phillies' offer. It's surely not just about that. There's no way to outbid if he just wants that experience. And for a middle-class (at least) kid from Michigan the signing bonus wasn't going to be life-changing money (and he can still get one next year).

I don't think you can overstate just how posh the University of Texas athletics program is right now as they enter the SEC (which I'm sure is also appealing to him). Their clubhouse and stadium and workout facilities and nutrition programs are all nicer than AAA, not just Clearwater. And then there's Austin itself (a city I, and AF, can no longer tolerate, but a great place to be 21 years old).

UT also just paid $2.7 million in buyout money to hire their coach (it would have been $1.35 million if he'd left for a school that wasn't in Texas), who also almost certainly makes more annual $ than Rob Thomson. Buyout money usually comes directly from donors too.

[Austinfan]

Plus if you're a kid with his head on his shoulders he'll know the odds of making the show as a 14th rd pick are probably 5% or less, while the connections you make as a star athlete at U of Texas can be a gateway into lucrative jobs down the road.

[bkox]

Plus if you're a kid with his head on his shoulders he'll know the odds of making the show as a 14th rd pick are probably 5% or less,

from 2010 to 2019 43 of 300 players drafted in the 14th round made at least one appearance in an MLB game. 14.3% Since 2020.. 0 have as of yet.