A’s sign 1st-round draft pick Max Muncy

Slightly above slot value

The 2021 MLB draft went down a week ago, which means the next step is for teams to sign the new prospects they selected.

The Oakland A’s got off to a prompt start in that regard, signing 1st-round pick Max Muncy for $2.85 million, reports Carlos Collazo of Baseball America. That’s $109,700 over the slot value for the No. 25 overall pick.

Muncy is a shortstop who was drafted out of high school, and sometimes there can be signability questions regarding whether prep prospects will opt to go to college instead of turning pro. That was never the case with Muncy, whose likely agreement was floated immediately and accurately on draft day.

While he went over his slot value, it wasn’t by much. The A’s bonus pool is $6.2 million and they can go over by around $300K if they want, so an extra $100K on their top pick is negligible. In fact, with Muncy locked up around slot, at this point it’s not even worth the time to make a table tracking Oakland’s bonus pool spending. The rest of their Top 10 picks are college players, including five seniors who carry zero negotiating leverage, so they should be able to get everyone signed without a problem.

For a refresher on the A’s latest draft class, here are some links:

• 1st round: Max Muncy, high school shortstop
• 2nd thru 10th rounds
• 11th thru 20th rounds

Muncy visited the Coliseum on Monday to officially sign his contract, along with agent Scott Boras.

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