Elliott: Naylor sign jumps A's to 10th, Pirates No. 1, Jays remain 9th in draft bonuses

By signing 39th pick over-all — 3B Myles Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) of the Ontario Blue Jays — the Oakland A’s climbed from 19th to 10th on spending dollars on Canadian talent.

August 17, 2023

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

All it took was Oakland A’s scout Matt Higginson convincing his bosses on the talents and pedigree of Myles Naylor.

And when Oakland selected Ontario Blue Jays 3B Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) 39th overall in the July draft, the signing by Higginson (Grimsby, Ont.) vaulted Oakland from 19th in overall TSCT (Team Spending on Canadian Teams) to a solid 10th.

In full disclosure we have three things to point out ... that we

A) Only track and add six-figure signing amounts.

B) Have added five missing players -- none who signed for more than $200,000.

C) Finally combined the signing bonuses of the Montreal Expos and the Washington Nationals.

Naylor was given a $2,202,500 signing bonus to vault the A’s in the standings.

Prior to signing Naylor, the A’s have been active in Canada but have not had much success at the draft table. The A’s landed Toronto Mets grad OF Denzel Clarke (Pickering, Ont.), a fourth rounder in 2021 from Cal State Northridge, for $700,000; Ontario Blue Jays INF T.J. Schofield-Sam (Brampton, Ont.), a 12th rounder in 2019, who signed for $320,000 and LHP Kevin MacLeod (Sydney N.S.) from Toledo University, a fifth rounder in 1987, who signed for $500,000.

The Pittsburgh Pirates sit in the No.1 spot -- by a mere $15,551 -- and the Bucs didn’t even use a draft choice to get there. Pittsburgh gave undrafted free-agent RHP Noah Takacs (Victoria, BC), from the Sacramento State Hornets, a $150,000 bonus to take over from the idle San Diego Padres.

The Pirates’ largest three signings are RHP Jameson Taillon, whose mom is from Toronto and his father from the St. Andrews West region in the Cornwall area, who was given $6.5 million as No. 2 behind Bryce Harper in the 2010 MLB draft, Great Lake Canadians RHP Austin Shields (Dundas, Ont.), selected in the 33rd round in 2016, who signed for $205,000 and Team Sask’s RHP Logan Hofmann (Muenster, Sask.), a fifth rounder in 2020, who received a $125,000 bonus.

The Padres’ three big expenditures were: Terriers first rounder RHP Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, Ont.) awarded $3,963,045 from Stanford, FieldHouse Pirates OF Owen Caissie (Burlington, Ont.) given $1.2 million as a second rounder in 2020 and RHP Matt Brash (Kingston, Ont.) from the Kingston Thunder, who signed for $512,400 as a fourth rounder out of Niagara University in 2019.

The Milwaukee Brewers sit third, spending $6,501,700 led by a 2021 first rounder and former Toronto Mets INF Tyler Black (Stouffville, Ont.) who was given $2.2 million.

Not far behind -- spending $6,388,200 -- were the Atlanta Braves, who gave Calgary PBF Redbirds RHP Mike Soroka (Calgary, Alta.) $1,974,700 after he was selected as a first rounder in 2015.

And rounding out the top five -- at $5,807,500 -- are the Seattle Mariners, who gave $2 million to Gareth Morgan (North York, Ont.) of the Ontario Blue Jays as a second rounder in 2014.

Next are the Baltimore Orioles ($5,391,800), the Cleveland Guardians ($4,698,138) and the Minnesota Twins ($4,224,500) are eighth.

Canada’s team, when it comes to advertising, TV viewership, but not spending on Canadian talent again sits ninth ($4,080,000) despite signing fifth-round LHP Connor O’Halloran (Mississauga, Ont.) from the University of Michigan this year. The Terriers grad received $337,500 and ninth rounder Sam Shaw (Victoria, BC), of the Victoria Eagles, signed for $285,000.

In the 33 years Canadian high schoolers have been eligible, clubs have spent $88,041,287 or $2,667,918 per year.

Of if you are accounting along at home ... $2,934,710 per team. A total of 14 teams have spent more than that.

Sitting 30th and last are the San Francisco Giants, who have spent $205,000 on two players: RHP Brooks McNiven (Vernon, BC) of the University of British Columbia and C Chris Shaw (Winnipeg, Man.) of Oklahoma and the Okotoks Dawgs. That would be an average of $6,212 in signing bonuses per year.

The top amounts of spending on Canadians

(Six-figure bonus totals)