Everything You Need to Know Before the 2021 MLB Draft

When?

This year’s MLB Draft will consist of 20-rounds that will take part over three days. Day 1 of the draft, featuring round one and Competitive Balance Round A, will air on both MLB Network and ESPN and will begin at 6 p.m. CT. The Twins have two picks on Day 1, which are the 26th and 36th overall picks.

Day 2 of the draft will begin on Monday at 12 p.m. CT and can be watched on MLB.com. This day will feature rounds two through ten, along with Competitive Balance Round B that will take place between rounds two and three. The Twins have the 26th pick in round two (61st overall), and then will have the 27th pick in each subsequent round after that.

The draft will conclude with Day 3 taking place on Tuesday, starting at 11 a.m. CT and can be followed on MLB.com. Day 3 will feature rounds 11-20, again with the Twins holding the 27th pick in each round. In years past, Day 3 would feature rounds 11-40, however, as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the draft was shortened this year from 40 rounds down to 20.

Who are the Top Prospects?

If you want to dive in a little deeper on who some of the top prospects are before, or during, the draft, check out the Twins Daily Top 50 Prospect series that has been running for the last couple of weeks.

2021 MLB Draft Top 50 Prospects: 1-10

2021 MLB Draft Top 50 Prospects: 11-20

2021 MLB Draft Top 50 Prospects: 21-30

2021 MLB Draft Top 50 Prospects: 31-40

2021 MLB Draft Top 50 Prospects: 41-50

Possible Twins Picks to Follow

If you are curious as to who are some of the names to follow for the Twins first round pick, Jamie Cameron wrote a great article earlier this week highlighting six players that the Twins may take with their first round pick.

Twins Bonus Pool Allotment

For those of you who follow the MLB Draft each year, you are probably well aware of the bonus pool structure by now. However, for those of you who don’t really know how that works, or need a little refresher, here is a quick breakdown of the logistics.

When a team drafts a player, that team must make an offer to that player to get them to sign with their organization, which comes in the form of a signing bonus. Each team is only allotted a certain dollar amount that they must stay at or below when signing each of their picks in the first 10 rounds.

This allotment number is determined by adding together each of the pick allotments which that team has in the first round, as each pick is assigned a specific value. For example, the Pittsburgh Pirates have the first overall pick in the draft, and that pick has a slot value of $8,415,300, while the Texas Rangers have the second overall pick in the draft which has a slot value of $7,789,900.

If a team fails to sign one of their picks in the first 10 rounds, they do not simply get to use that money to help sign other picks, but rather that picks slot value is subtracted from the team’s total. This is where the game of the draft comes into play, as teams will often make selections based on how much it will take to sign a certain player. Additionally, for picks in rounds 11-20, if a team signs a player for more than $125,000, that money must come out of their bonus pool from the first 10 rounds.

Here is a breakdown of the Twins picks in the first 10 rounds (plus their Competitive Balance Round A pick) and the slot value assigned to each pick.

Round 1: $2,653,400

Comp Balance Round A: $2,045,400

Round 2: $1,129,700

Round 3: $593,100

Round 4: $442,900

Round 5: $327,200

Round 6: $253,300

Round 7: $198,500

Round 8: $164,700

Round 9: $150,500

Round 10: $142,700 

Total Bonus Pool: $8,101,400

Now that you know more about how this works, you can tell fellow Twins fans who complain about the Twins being cheap in the draft that they are wrong. It is not that they are being cheap, they are just only allowed to spend so much money on these picks by MLB, and if take a guy with one of their first few picks that will sign for less that the pick value, it is because they plan on redistributing that money to sign other players later in the draft for over slot value, a strategy they have had a lot of success within recent years.