Tampa Bay Rays Will Have Incredible Opportunity to Add to Talented Farm System in Draft

The Rays have one of the most highly-regarded farm systems in baseball, and they'll have an excellent chance to add to it with nearly $17 million in bonus pool money during this year's MLB Draft.

A photo of the Milwaukee Brewers war room as they draft Braylon Payne with the 17th pick during the first round of the MLB Draft at Cowtown Coliseum in 2024. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

The Tampa Bay Rays have one of the best farm systems in baseball and they'll have a great opportunity to add to it during this year's MLB Draft.

It was announced on Wednesday that the Rays have $16,999,400 in bonus pool money available to them for the top 10 rounds. This is second only to the Seattle Mariners.

MLB released Draft slots & bonus pools tonight. They're up 4.8 percent from a year ago. The Nationals' No. 1 overall pick is valued at a record $11,075,900, while the Mariners have the largest pool at $17,074,400. Pools are below, should have a story up at @MLBPipeline in a bit. pic.twitter.com/fzyqcbv3Ew

— Jim Callis (@jimcallisMLB) April 24, 2025

This is all fairly layered, so let's take a step back for a moment and understand what it all means.

First: every pick in the top 10 rounds is given an assigned "slot value." Players can be signed for more or less than their assigned slot value, but teams can't go over their bonus pool number, not without penalty anyways. This applies for the top ten rounds of the draft, as rounds 11-20 are (mostly) governed by a different set of monetary rules.

Next, a team's bonus is calculated by adding up the slot values of the team's draft choices in the top ten rounds.

The Rays are picking 14th overall in the first round but also have pick No. 37 and pick No. 42 in the Competitive Balance Round A portion of the draft, giving them three picks in the Top 50. They'll then turn around and pick 53rd as well.

Because the Rays have so much money available, they'll be able to take some chances in the draft. For instance, selecting high school players comes with real risk, because they can always attend college if they don't like the offer. As a result, the Rays will have the ability to up the offer in a way that most teams won't, and they can essentially buy a high school player out of a college commitment.

The draft will begin on July 13 as part of the MLB All-Star Game festivities.