The Braves didn’t go into the draft planning to give their first-round pick about 70 percent of the team’s total draft signing-bonus allotment for the first 10 rounds. But they didn’t go in expecting that Vanderbilt pitcher Kyle Wright would still be available when they picked.
Wright was there, and the Braves snatched him with the fifth pick of Monday’s draft, then gave the Hunstville, Ala., native a record-breaking $7 million signing bonus before introducing him to Atlanta media Friday at SunTrust Park. That left about $3 million for the Braves to sign all other picks from the top 10 rounds.
“Sometimes it’s good to get the benefit of good luck and good fortune, and that’s what we can chalk it up to,” Braves general manager John Coppolella said of Wright slipping to fifth after he was projected as the No. 1 pick by more than one draft expert. “We’re very happy that he fell to us at 5, and we’re very happy to pay him 7 million dollars.”
Wright, a 21-year-old lifelong Braves fan who used to fall to sleep on school nights listening to Braves games, was quite happy to accept the offer and stay in the South. It surpassed the $6.7 million bonus the Cubs gave Kris Bryant in 2013 as the highest since the current draft slotting system went into effect in 2012.
“Me and my brothers grew up watching Braves games, and we tried to come whenever we could to Turner Field,” he said. “But if we couldn’t watch it here, we had them on TV, and that’s uusually how we went to bed before school the next day, having the Braves the game on.”
His favorite player was Chipper Jones. “But I loved watching John Smoltz. Always been a big fan of his. There’s a bunch of Braves, pitchers and players I loved watching growing up,” Wright said.
Wright’s family, including his mother, a NASA engineer, and father, who was his high school baseball coach, joined him for a tour of SunTrust Park on Friday and sat at the back of the room during his news conference. Wright sat between Coppolella and beaming Braves scouting director Brian Bridges.
“I grew up a Braves fan, so to be here and have an opportunity is something special,” Wright said. “My mom’s back there smiling. They’ve been a great support staff for me. … I want to thank my coaches at Vanderbilt, my teammates at Vanderbilt. They’ve been there pushing me the whole way. And without them, I might not be in this position. Moving forward, I’m really happy to be a Brave and for the opportunity to be a Brave. I look forward to going to work.”
Coppolella said the right-hander would report soon to the Gulf Coast Rookie League to get acclimated and make a few starts, after which he could be promoted to low Single-A Rome. Because of his age and experience, his path to the majors could be much shorter than some of the high-school pitchers the Braves drafted in recent seasons.
“We’re very fortunate to land Kyle picking fifth in the draft,” Bridges said. “We’re very excited to get him; (he was) definitely tops on our board, and we’re lucky to get him at that spot. We’ve been following him for four years. I can remember talking to his father at the concession stand when he played shortstop and pitched in a high school game. Followed his career throughout (his college years), and I know the job that (coach) Tim Corbin does with the players that he has at Vanderbilt University. They come out better than they went in both as human beings and baseball players.
“We’re thrilled to have Kyle Wright an Atlanta Brave.”
Wright is represented by the CAA group and had two agents at Friday’s signing and news conference.
“Both sides saw him as the same thing, the top college arm available,” agent Jeff Berry said. “It’s really fortunate that you have in this instance the family right from Huntsville, the dream growing up (of playing for the Braves). Someone asked him his favorite Braves player — dozens. You know what an institution the Braves are in the South. It’s really cool to see all that come full circle.
“It’s a great opportunity, obviously a big day for Kyle and his family, and hopefully a big day for the Braves organization, too.”
After Wright entered the Braves clubhouse Friday, the first player to greet him was his former Vanderbilt teammate, rookie shortstop Dansby Swanson. Swanson, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 draft, was a junior when Wright was a freshman who spent much of his first season in the closer role.
Wright was a full-time starter in his sophomore and junior seasons and finished with a 2.79 ERA and 290 strikeouts in 255 innings at Vanderbilt.
“It was incredible,” Wright said of his tour of the new ballpark and massive state-of-the-art clubhouse and training facilities at SunTrust Park. “Dansby came in and he came up to me, guess he found out I was here, and we started talking right away. So just being greeted like that was really cool. I guess I kind of expected it since it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other. At first glance I was blown away by the facilities.”
Wright could eventually leap-frog some of the other high-level pitching prospects the Braves have, but he won’t have an exhaustive workload this summer. After totaling 16 starts and a career-high 103 1/3 innings this year in his junior season at Vanderbilt, Wright probably won’t pitch more than about 30 innings in the minors this year.
Signing early and getting right to work made sense for all parties.
“As of now this is a record-setting bonus,” Berry said, “so an organization has a vested interest in making sure that a player, from an innings standpoint … I think one of the things that was important from our end is that if he was going to throw more (this year) that there wasn’t an extended break or a shutdown, but rather it can be a continuation on for the next 20 or 30 innings that you have on top of that, where it’s not shut down and then try to get back going again.
“We all have the same interests in this player reaching his maximum level of ability, so I think from that standpoint we’re all on the same page, for sure.”
