The deadline to sign 2025 Draft picks is July 28 at 5pm Eastern.
The 2025 Draft has come and gone over a whirlwind two days. The Orioles, with several extra picks available, came away with 24 players over the Draft’s 20 rounds. The next step is to get the players signed. That will all be settled before we even get to the trade deadline, as the signing deadline for picks this year is July 28 at 5pm Eastern.
The Orioles signed every one of their picks a year ago, handing out overslot bonuses to three high school players taken later than the fifth round. The 2025 class has four high school players in it, as well as six junior college players. Even with a record-setting signing bonus pool available, I’m not expecting them to sign all 24 players.
The total Orioles bonus pool
The Orioles have the largest-ever bonus pool available to spend in the 2025 Draft, with $19,144,500 available. They ended up with a large amount of pool space by virtue of getting compensation picks for both Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander and they tipped it into record-breaking when they traded Bryan Baker to the Rays for pick #37 in this Draft.
The bonus pool system has been in effect since the 2012 Draft. Each pick in the first ten rounds is assigned a value that decreases as the draft goes along. Add up these values and you get a team’s total bonus pool. Discussion about whether a particular signing is overslot or underslot is relative to the value for that pick. The top Orioles pick at #19 has a slot value of $4,420,900, on down to just $189,300 for their tenth round pick.
On the whole, players who have more leverage to get overslot bonuses are those who have just graduated from high school, as well as draft-eligible college sophomores and junior college players. They can just say they’ll go to school if they don’t like what a team offers. Picks who were either college seniors or even graduate students still playing baseball tend to get under slot bonuses.
In the case of the 2025 Orioles Draft class, they may end up handing out overslot bonuses to college juniors, as top pick Ike Irish as well as #31 pick Wehiwa Aloy were expected to be drafted higher than they were. There may need to be extra money in those signing bonuses to reflect talent being higher than their draft slot.
The total bonus pool does depend on every pick in the top ten rounds being signed. An unsigned pick in the top ten rounds means that the team loses the slot value for that pick from its pool. Because of this, teams and players nearly always have agreed upon figures before a pick is made.
Players taken from rounds 11-20, and undrafted players, can receive a signing bonus up to $150,000 without counting against the pool. Any amount that exceeds $150,000 for these picks is what counts against the pool. Additionally, it’s now the case that junior college players can sign late as “draft-and-follow” players for a bonus of up to $225,000 before next year’s Draft.
Also, a team can exceed its pool by up to 5% and it will only have to pay a tax on the overage amount, equal to 75% of the overage. There are steeper penalties for exceeding 5% that no team has ever incurred. In last year’s Draft, the Orioles exceeded their bonus pool by a bit more than $500,000, ending up under the allowed 5% overage with less than a thousand bucks to spare. The possible 5% overage this year is $957,225.
This article will be updated between now and the deadline as signings or non-signings are announced.
The official signings
As of this publication, the Orioles have not signed any of their picks.
Undrafted free agents
- J.D. Hennen – RHP – Augustana (announced on his Instagram)
- Joephilip Guzman – 2B – Shoemaker (TX) HS (reported here)
No news yet
- 1st round, 19th overall – Ike Irish – C/OF – Auburn
- Compensation, 30th overall – Caden Bodine – C – Coastal Carolina
- Compensation, 31st overall – Wehiwa Aloy – SS – Arkansas
- CB Round A, 37th overall – Slater de Brun – OF – Summit (OR) HS
- 2nd round, 58th overall – Joseph Dzierwa – LHP – Michigan State
- CB round B, 69th overall – JT Quinn – RHP – Georgia
- 3rd round, 93rd overall – RJ Austin – OF – Vanderbilt
- 4th round, 124th overall – Colin Yeaman – SS – UC-Irvine
- 5th round, 154th overall – Jaiden Lo Re – SS – Corona Del Sol (AZ) HS
- 6th round, 184th overall – Caden Hunter – LHP – USC
- 7th round, 214th overall – Hunter Allen – RHP – Ashland University
- 8th round, 244th overall – Kailen Hamson – LHP – University of the Cumberlands
- 9th round, 274th overall – Cam Lee – OF – Mineral Area JC (MO)
- 10th round, 304th overall – Dalton Neuschwander – RHP – University of West Florida
- 11th round, 334th overall – Holden deJong – LHP – New Jersey Institute of Technology
- 12th round, 364th overall – Daniel Lopez – RHP – Odessa College
- 13th round, 394th overall – Brayden Smith – 2B – Oklahoma State
- 14th round, 424th overall – Brayan Orrantia – RHP – New Mexico JC
- 15th round, 454th overall – KK Clark – RHP – Pearl River CC (MS)
- 16th round, 484th overall – Denton Biller – RHP – Johnson County CC (KS)
- 17th round, 514th overall – Braeden Sloan – LHP – TCU
- 18th round, 544th overall – Cole Johnson – OF – Oconee County (GA) HS
- 19th round, 574th overall – Jimmy Anderson – SS – Heartland CC (IL)
- 20th round, 604th overall – Connor Gehr – RHP – Meridian CC (MS)
Reportedly not signing
As of this writing, no one has indicated that he’s definitely not signing.