What is the Milwaukee Brewers signing bonus pool for the 2024 MLB Draft?

The 2024 MLB Draft is rapidly approaching, believe it or not. The Milwaukee Brewers had a highly regarded draft class in 2023 and look to have yet another one in 2024. This year's MLB Draft will take place on July 14-16 at the home of the Texas Rangers.

Picks in the first 10 rounds carry an allotted slot value that the league determines that pick is worth. However, teams are not locked in to signing players at that exact amount. They can sign them above or below slot if they so choose. But, those slot values add up to a team's "bonus pool" that caps how much they can spend, so if you go over-slot on one player, you have to find someone to sign a below slot deal to balance out.

Teams can exceed their bonus pool by a maximum of 5% and only have to pay a tax on the overage. Anything over 5% and teams will be punished with the loss of draft picks. No team has ever exceeded the 5% overage. Last year, the Brewers exceeded their signing bonus pool by 4.999%, just 30 dollars shy of that 5% mark.

Milwaukee Brewers 2024 MLB Draft signing bonus pool total: $12,984,400

The Brewers have the 9th biggest bonus pool in the league this year, coming in just shy of $13MM, despite their first selection not coming until 17th overall. Last year's pool was just shy of $11MM.

There are a couple reasons for the big increase in the Brewers bonus pool money for the 2024 Draft. Slot values have increased from last year's draft to this year's. The Brewers are picking earlier due to some Draft Lottery luck and have selections in both Competitive Balance Round A and B thanks to the Corbin Burnes trade, which has resulted in one of the bigger bonus pools in this year's Draft.

Here are the assigned slot values for each of the Brewers selections:

Round 1(17 overall): $4,534,100
CBA(34): $2,698,300 (via BAL)
2(57): $1.562,100
CBB(67): $1,226,800
3(93): $788,700
4(123): $583,400
5(156): $422,900
6(185): $328,700
7(215): $257,400
8(245): $210,700
9(275): $190,900
10(305): $180,400

The draft pick the Brewers picked up in the Burnes trade gives the Crew 12 picks in the first 10 rounds and four of the first 67 overall selections, not to mention an extra couple million dollars to play with.

Including the 5% overage, the Brewers can spend a maximum of $13,633,620 on signing bonuses for their draft picks, which is about $650k above their allotted bonus pool.

Any selection in rounds 11-20 that sign will have however much spent over $150k count towards the bonus pool. So if the Brewers sign their 11th round pick to a signing bonus of $200k, only $50k will count towards the pool.

The Brewers will likely try to maximize their pool money as they did last year when they brought in Eric Bitonti, Cooper Pratt, Bishop Letson, and a few more prospects in on over-slot deals.