Since J.P. Ricciardi took over the Blue Jays in the fall of 2001 he has guided the scouting department through seven amateur drafts. There has been some adaptation of philosophies along the way, most publicly the “Moneyball” college vs. high school player theory, but one thing has been constant. Under Ricciardi’s leadership, the Jays have never exceeded MLB’s recommended signing bonus, more commonly known as slotting, for any drafted player.
Remarkably, the Blue Jays are currently the only team not to have exceeded slot over this timeframe. I say currently because this will change in 2009 — finally. I can’t say for sure which round it will be in; it may be in the first, sixth or the 10th, but it will happen.
Perhaps it will take place more than once; after all the Jays need to make up for lost time.
The MLB draft is broken; the lack of enforceable slotting allows the best players to set a bonus price so high, they essentially place themselves with the teams employing the largest budgets. Not surprisingly these teams have commonly been the Red Sox and Yankees, although the Tigers and a couple of others have joined the superpowers in recent years.
Toronto’s organizational policy of not going over slot has effectively reduced the number of players available for director Jon Lalonde’s scouting department to draft. If an amateur player’s representative set a high price tag, the Blue Jays have placed him on the “unsignable due to price” board. In recent years, this board has increased in size to contain hundreds of names.
In a way, it’s been commendable that Toronto has been the only team to play by the rules in recent years. But after a while, what’s the point of playing the game with one hand tied behind you back?