"This is due to a fairly new rule change to the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement, to incentivize teams to promote their talented young players in order to prevent them from keeping them in the minor leagues for six weeks to extend their service time. This rule, called the Prospect Promotion Incentive, is given to players who are Top 100 prospects that make the Opening Day roster."
"In case you were not already aware, many Atlanta Braves fans had been eagerly awaiting last night's news of the National League Rookie of the Year Award being awarded to Drake Baldwin since early last spring. This is not because they cared only about Baldwin getting an award, rather the award comes with an extra first round pick in the 2026 MLB Draft."
"This pick itself comes after the first round of the draft, and while the draft order is not set in stone just yet, we can estimate that it will be somewhere around pick 26-30, as the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, Phillies, and Blue Jays are all set to see their first round picks drop by 10 slots due to exceeding the second CBA threshold — though the Mets do have a minimal chance of hitting the draft lottery."
Drake Baldwin won the National League Rookie of the Year and triggered the Prospect Promotion Incentive, awarding the Braves an extra pick after the first round of the 2026 Draft. The incentive applies to Top 100 prospects who make the Opening Day roster to discourage service-time manipulation. Past recipients included Julio Rodriguez, Bobby Witt Jr., and Hunter Brown for respective awards or finalist finishes. Each player can generate only one such pick for his team. The extra pick is estimated around 26–30 due to other teams' CBA-related slot drops, and recent slot values suggest roughly a $3.6M bonus-pool increase.
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