Atlanta Braves First Steps for the 2024 MLB Draft

We’re just a few weeks away from the 2024 MLB Draft, and over the next few weeks we’ll be releasing a series of articles previewing the draft. To get everything started, this article is a brief introduction with all the information you might need to follow along and prepare the draft basics.

When, where, how to watch

Perhaps the most fun part of the draft is being able to watch it unfold, and the event itself has become an integral part of MLB All-Star Week. The first day of the draft, which will consist of the first round, the second round and the first two compensation rounds, will take place on Sunday, July 14 in Fort Worth, Texas. The full draft will run through Tuesday, July 16. This season, the start of the first round has been moved up a few hours and will now begin at 5:00 p.m. ET. The second and third days of the draft, on the other hand, will each begin at noon.

The first day of the draft will be broadcast on ESPN and MLB.com. Most years you can also watch it on MLB Network, and we’ll have an update the morning of the draft to confirm relevant TV and online streams. Day one is usually a deliberate affair, so if you’re only interested in the Braves’ picks, you’ll have a few hours to play before they’re on the clock. Days two and three will both be broadcast on MLB.com and will be reviewed much more quickly.

What are the Braves’ choices?

For the second straight season, the Atlanta Braves will be ranked 24th overall, just behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. They will then pick 62nd overall, which is their last pick of day one. Between now and the draft, the Braves could make a trade for a compensation pick similar to what they did in 2022 when they acquired the 35th overall pick, although that is fairly unlikely.

Each team is allocated a certain amount of money for each pick based on the position they took in the draft in the first ten rounds. The total of this allocation is called the team’s “pool.” When recruiting players, a team cannot exceed its pool without penalties. These penalties are progressive; for the first five percent over the pool, the penalty is simply a tax on the excess amount. As a result, teams, including the Braves, will almost always overshoot their pool. What teams probably won’t do is exceed that five percent threshold, in which case the penalties will mean the loss of a future draft pick.

For players selected after the tenth round, each team receives $125,000; any signing bonus above this number counts towards the pool.

The allocation for the Braves’ first-round pick is $3,556,300, but Atlanta likely won’t hit that number on this pick, as they signed their first pick of the draft in an under-slot deal in every draft under Alex Anthopoulos thus far. They have an overall bonus pool of $7,765,000 and we will likely see at least a few meaningful Day 2 picks as the Braves tend to spread their money across multiple picks.

Who will the Braves recruit?

Short answer: no one knows exactly. There are a few trends we can expect the Braves to follow, but there generally aren’t any very strong connections leading into the draft because Atlanta doesn’t let a lot of information slip. In many past seasons, the ties have primarily surrounded college talent, particularly college pitchers, and that largely reflects the team’s preference over the past five picks. The exception was 2022, when the Braves’ favorite college talents went off the board early, and they drafted prep pitcher Owen Murphy with the 20th overall pick en route to intensive preparation in this draft.

We’ve covered a few mock projects on the site and will continue to receive more as they arrive. So far, many of them have leaned heavily toward college again, with Kentucky outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt and Mississippi State pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje being the two most-common selections. The Braves generally heavily favor players with high athletic ceilings regardless of which side of the ball they are on and, as mentioned, have primarily drafted players to undervalue first-round deals. Atlanta’s draft strategy is not publicly known, but the general feeling is that they will wait and hope that players projected in the top half of the draft slide (like Hurston Waldrep last year) and if no players in this type is not available, they will fall. a bit on the boards to save money and attract a wider range of players with their later choices.

What you can expect from us

Our draft coverage this season will be led by our minor league team: myself, our resident draft expert Matt Powers and Brady Petree. Over the next few weeks, we’ll profile many of the players connected to the Braves thus far, while also detailing the depth of the system and this draft, which are relevant to how Atlanta plays out. On draft day, all first day picks will receive an individual draft immediately following the selection. For days two and three, we’ll have profiles on players we consider significant picks – usually through the fifth round, but this can vary. (We had guys like AJ Smith-Shawver as seventh-round picks that we were high on.) After days two and three, we’ll have an overall recap of events, including the lesser picks. After the draft, I will release a signature tracker to track signatures.