Atlanta officially signs twenty of their twenty-one draft selections
The Atlanta Braves announced on Friday that they've officially signed twenty of their twenty one draft picks, with 12th rounder Brady Day of Kansas State choosing to return to school over beginning his MLB career.
Atlanta Braves
As expected, first rounder Hurston Waldrep out of the University of Florida received the largest bonus, getting $3M to sign (on a slot value of $3.27M). The Braves went over-slot for their two prep draftees, with both RHP Garrett Bauman out of Hagerty HS (R4, slot value $521.80k) and OF Isaiah Drake of North Atlanta High School (R5, slot value $521.80k) both getting $747,500 to sign.
Of particular note was 3nd round pick Drue Hackenberg getting an overslot deal of $2M to sign - his slot value was $1.37M and the popular sentiment was that he was a money-saving choice as a sinker/slider guy, but Atlanta was obviously enamored with the bloodlines and went overslot to sign him. Hackenberg's brothers have been selected by the NFL (Christian, New York Jets), MLS (Brandon, Orlando City), and MLB (Alex, Chicago White Sox).
Typically, what Atlanta does with their draftees is bring them to the spring training complex in North Port after signing for a few days of evaluations and orientation before being sent out to their affiliates between now and August, depending on position.
For pitchers, it's harder to ramp them back up than it is a hitter, and doubly so if it's a pitcher that went deep into the college postseason as Waldrep and, to a lesser extent, Kuehler did.
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