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USA Today
13-07-2025
- Business
- USA Today
What is a slot draft? Explaining MLB system, values, pool money for MLB Draft
It's draft day in Major League Baseball. Over the next two days down in Atlanta, nearly 300 draft-eligible players will be selected by 30 different MLB teams in the 2025 MLB Draft in hopes of being that next up-and-coming star like Bryce Harper or Bobby Witt Jr. or Paul Skenes and be that missing piece to a World Series championship puzzle. In recent years, the draft has become a spectacle, as it has bounced around from one All-Star Game city to another. But amid all that, the draft hasn't lost its touch or complexity for those at home to understand the ins and outs of it, as it is the longest draft among the four professional sports. REQUIRED READING: MLB mock draft 2025: Who's going No. 1? Final breakdown of top prospects That complexity has to do with the strategy MLB executives will be using to select and sign their picks, as the MLB draft is a strict slot draft through the first 10 rounds. It really puts scouting to the next level and turns the draft into a game of Monopoly of sorts for teams with a set pool of money at their disposal. Here's what to know about the MLB draft, why it is a slot draft and more: What is a slot draft? In short, a slot draft, such as the MLB draft, is when picks in the draft have a specific pre-determined slot value associated with them. The slot values for the draft are determined by Major League Baseball each year by matching growth in revenue sharing and are assigned to every pick for the first 10 rounds of the draft. However, just because there is a pre-determined slot value for each pick, that doesn't mean a team has to sign that player to that value. How so? Well, like free agency, teams negotiate a deal with their draft picks and can sign them to a lower value. If a team signs one of its picks to a lower number than the pick's value, that team can use that remaining pool money for another one of its picks. Noted by a team can be penalized for exceeding its overall slot value and bonus pool money: REQUIRED READING: How Otto Kemp went from undrafted D-II prospect to key bat for first-place Phillies How much does No. 1 overall pick in 2025 MLB Draft make? According to Jim Callis, the No. 1 overall pick to the Washington Nationals in the 2025 MLB Draft has an estimated slot value of $11,075,900, which is an increase of $505,300 more than what it was valued for last year when the Cleveland Guardians took Travis Bazzana. Here's a breakdown of how much past No. 1 overall pick was worth in each of the last two years according to MLB draft first round slot values Here are the slot values for each of the first 32 picks — Round 1, Prospect Promotion Incentive Pick and Free-Agent Compensation Picks — of the 2025 MLB Draft, courtesy of * Denotes First Round Pick ** Denotes Prospect Promotion Incentive Pick ** Denotes Free-Agent Compensation Pick Click here to view the slot values for remaining picks through Round 10. REQUIRED READING: MLB All-Star Game rosters 2025: Injury replacements, starters, pitchers and reserves MLB draft 2025 pool money Among the 30 MLB teams, the Seattle Mariners enter the 2025 MLB Draft with the highest pool money — slot and bonus pool values for the first 10 rounds — at $17,074,400, which is the fourth-highest total pool money since the pool bonus-pool era began in 2012. The New York Yankees have the smallest pool among all 30 teams at $5,383,600. The Yankees were originally slated to pick at No. 28 in the first round but fell to No. 38 in the second round after going into the second luxury tax threshold of the competitive balance tax with their free agency signing of Max Fried. Here's a full breakdown of pool money for all 30 MLB teams in the 2025 MLB Draft, per MLB draft first round order 2025 Here's the full first-round order of picks for the MLB draft: * Denotes Prospect Promotion Incentive Pick ** Denotes Free Agent Compensation Pick Note: The Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets and New York Yankees don't have a first-round pick due to receiving a 10-pick penalty on their first picks for exceeding the second tax threshold of the competitive balance tax MLB draft schedule 2025 The 2025 MLB Draft will be split up into two days, July 13 and July 14. Rounds 1 through 3 — including competitive balance rounds, compensation picks and prospect promotion incentive picks — will take place on July 13 at the Coca-Cola Roxy in Atlanta, with the remaining 16 rounds taking place on July 14. Here's a full look at the 2025 MLB Draft schedule: The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
NBC Sports
08-07-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
MLB All-Star Game: Rotoworld staff picks for the 2025 Midsummer Classic
We are just a week away from the Midsummer Classic airing at 8 pm ET next Tuesday, July 15th. The MLB announced the starters for the 2025 All-Star Game last week, but we had a few thoughts of our own. Below you'll find the Rotoworld Baseball Staff's picks to start the MLB All-Star game, plus some of our favorite reserves. Everybody was asked to choose their starting position players, one starting pitcher, one reserve hitter, and one reserve starting pitcher from both the American League and National League. We tallied the votes and awarded starting spots to those who came out ahead in our mini competition, but then we also took the other hitters and starting pitchers to received votes and put them in our reserves list. Since each writer did not create a full bench, you're primarily seeing players who got starting votes, which means not every player we think deserves to be in the All-Star game will be represented below. Also, it should go without saying, but this is just an exercise for fun. We wanted to shine some light on players who we felt had a great first half that weren't awarded the starting spot that we felt they deserved, and also salute some who were. American League Starters C: Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners (unanimous) 1B: Jonathan Aranda, Tampa Bay Rays 2B: Gleyber Torres, Detroit Tigers 3B: José Ramírez, Cleveland Guardians (unanimous) SS: Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City Royals 'Not only has Jonathan Aranda outperformed nearly every first baseman in the American League this season, but he deserves to be introduced to a wider baseball audience where he isn't a household name. I'm a firm believer that the All-Star Game needs an injection of fresh faces every summer to avoid becoming stale, and giving someone like Aranda an opportunity seems like a way to do it on the American League side, where there are plenty of established stars in the mix at each position group.' - George Bissell 'Bobby Witt Jr. had some inspired competition this year in the form of Jeremy Peña and Jacob Wilson, but I believe in voting for the best player, not just the one that had the best first three months, and the 2024 AL MVP runnerup hasn't exactly been dethroned in hitting .296/.346/.503 with 24 steals and stellar defense at short. Fortunately, all three wound up making the team anyway.' - Matthew Pouliot OF: Aaron Judge, New York Yankees (unanimous) OF: Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins OF: Riley Greene, Detroit Tigers (unanimous) DH: Brent Rooker, Athletics 'It's surprising to us that Byron Buxton wasn't named a starter since he was selected on all but one of our ballots. The 31-year-old has remained healthy in the first half and hit .270 with 20 home runs, 16 steals, and an .879 OPS while posting an Outs Above Average score of 5 in his outfield innings. He's 5th in the entire American League in WAR and trails only Aaron Judge when t comes to outfielders. He deserved to start.' - Eric Samulski 'Brent Rooker isn't as worthy of an All-Star nod this year as last, but among the players actually listed as DHs on the AL ballot -- and with Rafael Devers obviously no longer eligible -- I'd say he deserves the nod over Ryan O'Hearn and Ben Rice, in part because of his 39 homers and 165 OPS+ last season. He's been no slouch in coming in at .271/.348/.486 this season, and while O'Hearn has been a little better, his line benefits from him sitting against tough lefties.' - Matthew Pouliot SP: Tarik Skubal (unanimous) Reserves (others receiving starter votes, plus honorary mention starting pitchers and bench bats: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B - Toronto Blue Jays Brandon Lowe, 2B - Tampa Bay Rays Jeremy Peña, SS - Houston Astros Javier Baez, 3B/SS/OF - Detroit Tigers George Springer, OF- Toronto Blue Jays Yandy Diaz, 1B/DH - Tampa Bay Rays Jacob Wilson, SS - Athletics Hunter Brown, SP - Houston Astros Garrett Crochet, SP - Boston Red Sox Jacob deGrom, SP - Texas Rangers 'I voted for Jeremy Peña as my starter at shortstop, and he got three votes from our group. In truth, it's a legitimate toss-up between him and Witt. Pena has the better batting average and on-base percentage, and similar slugging. His wRC+ of 145 is better than Witt's 128 mark, but Witt is the better defender. I just wanted to award a player for making a huge jump and having a career season, so I'm just happy to see that Pena makes it on our team somewhere.' - Eric Samulski National League Starters C: Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers (unanimous) 1B: Pete Alonso, New York Mets (unanimous) 2B: Ketel Marte, Arizona Diamondbacks (unanimous) 3B: Eugenio Suárez, Arizona Diamondbacks SS: Francisco Lindor, New York Mets 'Pete Alonso has been the most impactful first baseman in all of baseball this season. He leads the position with 20 home runs, 73 RBI, and a .422 xwOBA while starting all 91 games his Mets have played. There's an argument that Michael Busch could have been the pick over him with a slightly better slash line across the board, but that would be splitting hairs. Especially after Alonso was so vital to the Mets' early-season surge while Juan Soto was still scuffling. He is the obvious pick here.' - James Schiano 'The voting for third base in the NL was the most spread out for us with five votes for Eugenio Suárez, three votes for Manny Machado, and one vote for Matt Chapman. Suárez has helped to keep the Diamondbacks afloat during the first half of the season with his monster offensive performance. His home run (28) and RBI (74) totals dwarf every other third baseman in both leagues, with Junior Caminero (21 HR, 57 RBI) the next closest. His .881 OPS paces the position league-wide as well. It's a travesty that Alec Bohm will be the National League's starting third baseman instead of Suárez, but fortunately, the 33-year-old slugger was named to the squad as a reserve, making it the first time that he has appeared in the Mid-Summer Classic since the 2018 season.' - Dave Shovein OF: Kyle Tucker, Chicago Cubs (unanimous) OF: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Chicago Cubs (unanimous) OF: James Wood, Washington Nationals DH: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers (unanimous) 'Choosing players for the All-Star is about two things: who has played the best in the first half and who Major League Baseball wants to represent them on one of their biggest nights of the year. James Wood easily checks both boxes. His .940 OPS leads all National League outfielders by a decent margin while his 23 home runs and 67 RBI are both inside the top-three. No matter how you slice it, he's one of the premier players in this league. Add in the fact that he's doing this at 22 years old, and we could be looking at a future face of the sport. That's someone the entire country should have a chance to watch against the league's best.' - James Schiano SP: Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia Phillies 'Zack Wheeler has never started in the All-Star Game before, despite being one of the best pitchers in baseball for the better part of the past several years. And while he doesn't match the ERA of Paul Skenes, he has the edge in terms of strikeout percentage and walk percentage. Another narrative angle to keep in mind is that Wheeler is from the Atlanta metro area, so the timing is right to give him the starting nod.' - D.J. Short Michael Busch, 1B - Chicago Cubs Freddie Freeman, 1B - Los Angeles Dodgers Elly De La Cruz, SS - Cincinnati Reds Trea Turner, SS - Philadelphia Phillies Manny Machado, 3B - San Diego Padres Matt Chapman, 3B - San Francisco Giants Ronald Acuña Jr., OF - Atlanta Braves Andy Pages, OF - Los Angeles Dodgers Paul Skenes, SP - Pittsburgh Pirates Cristopher Sanchez, SP - Philadelphia Phillies MacKenzie Gore, SP - Washington Nationals 'The cosmic ideal for constructing these Midsummer Classic rosters manages to blend franchise icons with emerging superstars in a way that melds the past and present for casual fans. Voting for Manny Machado to make his seventh All-Star Game appearance just a few days after notching his 2,000th career hit seems like a no-brainer. The added dramatic tension of seeing San Diego's franchise cornerstone interact with Los Angeles' superstars throughout the event doesn't hurt either.' - George Bissell 'Andy Pages has made tremendous strides as an all-around player in his second season in the majors. The 24-year-old outfielder has been one of the leaders in the National League both in the field and at the plate, with a 128 WRC+ that ranks eighth among NL outfielders behind a .823 OPS, 17 homers, and seven steals while also ranking among the 95th percentile in Baseball Savant's Fielding Value. His overall contributions make Pages deserving of All-Star honors.' - Jorge Montanez
NBC Sports
26-06-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Team USA's Bobby Witt Jr. ready for bigger role in 2026 World Baseball Classic
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is going to again play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, and next year certainly will have a bigger role than last time. Witt announced Thursday that he is committed to playing for the United States and manager Mark DeRosa in the 2026 WBC. It will be Witt's second time on the team. When part of Team USA in 2023, Witt was 22 and the youngest player on the roster who was coming off a standout rookie MLB season. He was a bench player who went 1 for 2 at the plate, and also was a pinch-runner in the ninth inning of the championship game won by Shohei Ohtani and Japan. Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who will be the U.S. captain, and Pirates ace Paul Skenes have also committed to play for Team USA next spring. 'It's truly an honor,' Witt, who turned 25 two weeks ago, told MLB Network. 'It's something I've kinda dreamed about my whole entire life. Just being part of that team a couple years ago was amazing, and now we're going to bring home the gold.' Witt was the runner-up to Judge in the American League MVP voting last season, when the shortstop led the majors with a .332 batting average. Witt hit .285 with 10 home runs and 40 RBIs in the Royals' first 80 games this year. DeRosa said on MLB Network that he approached Witt during spring training about playing in the 2026 WBC, to which the player responded, '100%. I'm starting, right?'
26-06-2025
- Sport
Team USA's Bobby Witt Jr. ready for bigger role in 2026 World Baseball Classic
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is going to again play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, and next year certainly will have a bigger role than last time. Witt announced Thursday that he is committed to playing for the United States and manager Mark DeRosa in the 2026 WBC. It will be Witt's second time on the team. When part of Team USA in 2023, Witt was 22 and the youngest player on the roster who was coming off a standout rookie MLB season. He was a bench player who went 1 for 2 at the plate, and also was a pinch-runner in the ninth inning of the championship game won by Shohei Ohtani and Japan. Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who will be the U.S. captain, and Pirates ace Paul Skenes have also committed to play for Team USA next spring. 'It's truly an honor,' Witt, who turned 25 two weeks ago, told MLB Network. 'It's something I've kinda dreamed about my whole entire life. Just being part of that team a couple years ago was amazing, and now we're going to bring home the gold.' Witt was the runner-up to Judge in the American League MVP voting last season, when the shortstop led the majors with a .332 batting average. Witt hit .285 with 10 home runs and 40 RBIs in the Royals' first 80 games this year. DeRose said on MLB Network that he approached Witt during spring training about playing in the 2026 WBC, to which the player responded, '100%. I'm starting, right?'
San Francisco Chronicle
26-06-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
Team USA's Bobby Witt Jr. ready for bigger role in 2026 World Baseball Classic
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is going to again play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, and next year certainly will have a bigger role than last time. Witt announced Thursday that he is committed to playing for the United States and manager Mark DeRosa in the 2026 WBC. It will be Witt's second time on the team. When part of Team USA in 2023, Witt was 22 and the youngest player on the roster who was coming off a standout rookie MLB season. He was a bench player who went 1 for 2 at the plate, and also was a pinch-runner in the ninth inning of the championship game won by Shohei Ohtani and Japan. Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who will be the U.S. captain, and Pirates ace Paul Skenes have also committed to play for Team USA next spring. 'It's truly an honor,' Witt, who turned 25 two weeks ago, told MLB Network. 'It's something I've kinda dreamed about my whole entire life. Just being part of that team a couple years ago was amazing, and now we're going to bring home the gold.' Witt was the runner-up to Judge in the American League MVP voting last season, when the shortstop led the majors with a .332 batting average. Witt hit .285 with 10 home runs and 40 RBIs in the Royals' first 80 games this year. ___
