MILWAUKEE – One month after making California high school pitcher Kolby Allard their top pick in the June free-agent draft, the Braves still haven’t signed the 17-year-old left-hander.
Allard, the 14th pick of the first round, and No. 1 overall selection Dansby Swanson (Arizona Diamondbacks) were the only remaining unsigned players among the first 15 players picked in the draft.
The Braves have signed all of their other top 25 picks, and remain hopeful of signing Allard before the July 17 signing deadline. He has a verbal commitment to attend UCLA if he opts not to sign, but it would surprise many in the baseball industry if Allard passed up the security of a signing bonus from the Braves.
“We’re still going through the process, and we’re very hopeful that we can sign Kolby,” Braves assistant general manager John Coppolella said. “You would’ve like to have had him signed earlier, but you understand that it’s a process. I wouldn’t say there’s a holdup on his end or our end, we just haven’t reached the finish line yet.”
If they don’t sign him, the Braves would get an additional first-round pick – the 15th overall selection – in next year’s draft as compensation. Next year’s draft is expected to be deeper than this year’s was, but the Braves say they would prefer to sign Allard.
A recent graduate of San Clemente (Calif.) High School, Allard missed most of his senior season due to a stress fracture in his back. Some analysts said he would have been a top-10 draft pick, and possibly top-five, if not for the injury, which Allard and the Braves said on draft night was healed and would not delay the start of his pro career.
Braves second-round pick Lucas Herbert, Allard’s friend and batterymate at San Clemente (Calif.) High School, signed for $1,125,200.
Both Allard and Herbert committed to UCLA, but the Braves, when they picked them, fully expected that both would forgo college and sign. On draft night, Allard said, “I couldn’t be more happy to start my career with the Atlanta Braves. First-class organization, first-class people, and, like, a ton of history. I couldn’t be more excited.”
When asked that night if a deal were already in place, he said, “No, we haven’t agreed on money as far as I know, but I don’t think that’s going to be much of a problem.”
There has been recent speculation that Allard’s agent, Casey Close of Excel Sports Management, has asked for a bonus more in line with where Allard might have been drafted if not for the injury, rather than the recommended slot value for the 14th pick ($2,842,200).
According to Baseball America, the Braves had a bonus pool allotment of just over $10.6 million. That’s the amount, set by major league baseball, that the Braves can use to sign their picks from the first 10 rounds.
The Braves saved less than $100,000 under recommended slot-value for their other top-10 picks, and can exceed their total allotment by less than five percent without being penalized by forfeiting a future draft pick.
That means they could give Allard at least $500,000 more than his recommended slot value without being penalized. Whether they will do that is unclear. They have added a slew of young arms, including 11 of their other 13 first picks in the draft, and a recent trade for prospect Touki Toussaint, a first-round pick by the Diamondbacks in the 2014 draft.
“He was our first pick,” Coppolella said of Allard. “He’s really, really good, and we’re very excited to have the opportunity to draft Kolby. And we really hope that we can sign Kolby. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re hopeful.”
The Braves signed 17-year-old Canadian pitcher Mike Soroka, their second pick of the first round (No. 28 overall), to a $1,974,400 bonus, and signed Mississippi high school third baseman Austin Riley, a supplemental-round pick (No. 41 overall), for $1.6 million.
Texas A&M pitcher A.J. Minter, a second-round supplemental pick (No. 75 overall), signed for $814,300. Third-round pick Anthony Guardado, another California high schooler, signed for $550,000.
Besides Swanson and Allard, the only remaining unsigned first-round selection as of Tuesday were No. 16 James Kaprielian (Yankees), and a pair of Dodgers picks, No. 24 Walker Buehler and No. 35 Kyle Funkhouser.
