2021 Cardinals Draft Tracker

July 11-13 was the MLB Draft, and the Cardinals took 21 players over 20 rounds; they had a competitive balance pick between the second and third rounds. After taking 3 high school players (Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, Tink Hence) with their first 3 picks, the team went back to their historical trend of safe college players; they took 2 high school players in the first 10 round and 3 total. Part of this is the lack of system depth; many of these college players should move a little more quickly because they are more developed. We saw former college pitchers Michael Wacha and Marco Gonzales progress quickly in the past, and the hope is that these low ceiling/high floor players can do that as well.

The Cardinals had a bonus pool of $8.167M to spend and they can go up to $8.575M with only being penalized a 100% tax on the overage; anything over $8.575M would result in the tax and loss of future picks. The pool comes from a recommended slot value for the first 10 rounds; players can be signed for more or less then the recommendation, but the number that matters is the total pool number. After the first 10 rounds, players can sign for up to $100k; anything over $100k will be added to their spending pool and count against the $8.167/8.575M available.

There are 3 tabs on the tracker. The first is the spending, tracking what they’ve spent against the bonus pool. The second tab is the actual picks. The final tab is the demographics – how many players they took at each position and what level of education they were picked from.

This will be updated daily until the signing deadline of August 1st. I’ll also throw some analysis and note below.

8/01: The Cardinals signed 20 of their 21 picks, with Casserilla declining to sign; the team had $55k left to spend before they would lose picks, so the max they could have gone for him is $180k. Instead, he’ll try to build his draft stock over the next 3 years.

7/24: Xavier Casserilla will stick with his commitment to Wichita State.

7/19: Callis announced the Cards signed Gordon Graceffo for below slot. Callis also Tweeted the Cardinals signed Joshua Baez to a $2.25M bonus; that a huge signing and the first one the Cardinals have gone overslot for. As of 4:15 (7/19), they are on track to be under their total draft pool.

Michael McGreevy signed for $2.75M per Jim Callis.
Osvaldo Tovalin signed per Jonathan Mayo.
Thomas Francisco signed per Callis.
Mike Antico signed per Callis.
Trent Baker signed per Callis.
Alfredo Ruiz signed per Mayo.
Zane Mills signed per Mayo.