NEW YORK (AP) — Major league teams spent a record $289 million on players picked in last year’s amateur draft, an increase of 7.2 percent from 2016.
After an initial drop when restraints began in 2012, spending has climbed gradually. For the sixth straight year, no team exceeded its signing bonus pool by more than 5 percent — the level that triggers the loss of a first-round draft pick the following June.
Spending dropped from $234 million in 2011 to $223 million in 2012, the first year in which teams were assigned signing bonus pools. The total fell to $221 million in 2013, and then climbed to $224 million in 2014, $249 million in 2015 and $269 million in 2016, according to figures compiled by Major League Baseball.
Twenty-one of the 30 teams exceeded their signing bonus pools, including five who went exactly 5 percent over: Atlanta, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee, Tampa Bay and Toronto. Clubs incurred $5,046,000 in tax, led by Oakland at $407,325.