June 4, 2005

PRE-DRAFT ERA

Reliable information on signing bonuses in the pre-draft era is sketchy, with bonuses often intertwined with a player’s salary, distorted to circumvent rules of the time, or in the case of under-the-table payments, going unreported altogether.

There was no systematic method of paying out bonuses in those days, unlike now when half the signing bonus is generally paid upon approval of the contract and the other half in the next calendar year. In many cases, the top bonuses of the pre-draft period were paid out over several years—10 in the case of Paul Pettit, baseball’s first $100,000 bonus baby.

On the basis of research conducted by Baseball America founding editor Allan Simpson, here is the progression of signing bonus in the pre-draft era, beginning with Dick Wakefield’s $52,000 bonus—the unofficial start of baseball’s bonus era:

Year	Player, Pos., Club	Bonus
1941	Dick Wakefield, of, Tigers	$52,000
1946	Bobby Brown, 3b, Yankees	56,000
	Tookie Gilbert, 1b, Giants	60,000
1947	Curt Simmons, lhp, Phillies	65,000
1948	Johnny Antonelli, lhp, Braves	75,000
	Frank House, c, Tigers	75,000
1950	Paul Pettit, lhp, Pirates	100,000
1951	Ted Kazanski, ss, Tigers	100,000
	Billy Joe Davidson, rhp, Indians	100,000
1952	Marty Keough, of, Red Sox	100,000
1957	John DeMerit, of, Braves	100,000
	Bob “Hawk” Taylor, c, Braves	112,000
1958	Dave Nicholson, of, Orioles	120,000
	Denis Menke, ss, Braves	125,000
1960	Danny Murphy, rhp, Cubs	130,000
	Randy Hundley, c, Giants	132,000
1961	Bob Bailey, ss, Pirates	175,000
1964	Rick Reichardt, of, Angels	205,000

DRAFT ERA

Here's how the bonus record evolved in the draft era, beginning with the $100,000 bonus the Athletics paid to Rick Monday, the first pick in the first draft. The figures represent bonuses in real dollars, with no regard to benefits from college scholarship plans or incentive bonus plans—or guaranteed bonus money in the cases when a player signed a major league contract (denoted with an asterisk). The list considers only players who signed with the clubs that drafted them and does not include the four loophole free agents from 1996—most notably Diamondbacks first baseman Travis Lee, who set a bonus record by signing for $10 million, or Devil Rays righthander Matt White, who quickly broke it when he signed for $10.2 million.

Year	Player, Pos., Club (Round)	Bonus
1965	Rick Monday, of, Athletics (1)	$100,000
1975	Danny Goodwin, c, Angels (1)	125,000
1978	Kirk Gibson, of, Tigers (1)	150,000
	*Bob Horner, 3b, Braves (1)	162,000
1979	Bill Bordley, lhp, Giants (1#)	200,000
	Todd Demeter, 1b, Yankees (2)	208,000
1988	Andy Benes, rhp, Padres (1)	235,000
1989	Tyler Houston, c, Braves (1)	241,500
	*Ben McDonald, rhp, Orioles (1)	350,000
	*John Olerud, 1b, Blue Jays (3)	575,000
1991	Mike Kelly, of, Braves (1)	575,000
	Brien Taylor, lhp, Yankees (1)	1,550,000
1994	Paul Wilson, rhp, Mets (1)	1,550,000
	Josh Booty, 3b, Marlins (1)	1,600,000
1996	Kris Benson, rhp, Pirates (1)	2,000,000
1997	Rick Ankiel, lhp, Cardinals (2)	2,500,000
	Matt Anderson, rhp, Tigers (1)	2,505,000
1998	*J.D. Drew, of, Cardinals (1)	3,000,000
	*Pat Burrell, 3b, Phillies (1)	3,150,000
	Mark Mulder, lhp, Athletics (1)	3,200,000
	Corey Patterson, of, Cubs (1)	3,700,000
1999	Josh Hamilton, of, Devil Rays (1)	3,960,000
2000	Joe Borchard, of, White Sox (1)	5,300,000

#January draft

Beginning with Bo Jackson, who broke the existing draft record in 1986 by signing a major league contract that guaranteed him $1.066 million over a three-year period, here’s the progression of record major league deals signed by drafted players, with the amount of the contract and bonus payment noted.

Year	Player, Pos., Club (Round)	Contract	Bonus
1986	Bo Jackson, of, Royals (4)	$1,066,000	$100,000
1990	Todd Van Poppel, rhp, Athletics (1)	1,200,000	500,000
1998	J.D. Drew, of, Cardinals (1)	7,000,000	3,000,000
	Pat Burrell, 3b, Phillies (1)	8,000,000	3,150,000
2001	Mark Teixeira, 3b, Rangers (1)	9,500,000	4,500,000
	Mark Prior, rhp, Cubs (1)	10,500,000	4,000,000