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The Brewers selected Hawaiian left-hander Kodi Medeiros with the 12th overall pick in the 2014 MLB draft. A short 4 days later it appears the two sides have reached an agreement according to this report (h/t Jim Goulart). Medeiros expects to sign with the Brewers later today in Las Vegas. The signing bonus is yet to be disclosed, but it seems to be near $2 million. The slot value for the 12th overall pick is $2,805,700. It was expected that Medeiros would be able to be signed to an underslot deal.
The Brewers only have so much money ($7,605,600) to spend on the draft and with overslot bonuses to both Jacob Gatewood ($445,100 overslot), and Monte Harrison ($699,700 overslot), it's imperative the Brewers find ways to save money on other picks. Teams can go up to 5% ($380,280 in the Brewers case) over their total allotment before losing draft picks in next year's draft so there is some wiggle room. That means they'd at least need to find another $764,520. If indeed the Brewers saved $805,700 on Medeiros that takes care of basically the bare minimum.
While the main goal is to be able to afford Gatewood and Harrison without being penalized a draft pick, it's also important to save money not only to account for the overslot bonuses to Gatewood and Harrison, but to help the Brewers sign some of their later selections that are "hard signs." I don't have figures for all of the signed draftees, but I do know that David Burkhalter signed for $51,900 below slot. Things are looking good.
Teams have until July 15th to sign draftees. We should know well before then who is going to sign and who isn't. The most important thing is that the Brewers have signed the top 3 guys and should likely have enough money left over to sign one or two of their later picks. All things considered, I'd say this was a very successful draft year for the Brew Crew.
