The Baseball Writers Association of America announced the finalists for the 2024 awards this evening. Bobby Witt Jr. was among the finalists for American League MVP, indicating he finished in the top three in the balloting. As Matt Eddy of Baseball America points out (on X), that’ll earn the Royals an extra pick after the first round of the 2025 draft.
The 2022 collective bargaining agreement introduced the Prospect Promotion Incentive to dissuade teams from keeping their top talents in the minors. A team that carries a top prospect for a full year of service can receive a draft choice if that player finds success early in his career.
A player would earn his team a pick for winning Rookie of the Year or finishing in the top three in Cy Young or MVP voting within his pre-arbitration years (essentially his first three seasons of service). A team can only add one PPI selection per player. In previous seasons, Julio Rodríguez, Gunnar Henderson and Corbin Carroll have earned their teams a PPI choice by winning Rookie of the Year.
Kansas City carried Witt, a consensus top prospect, on the roster for the entire 2022 season. The star shortstop did not earn the Rookie of the Year pick, finishing fourth in the balloting. He instead becomes the first player to earn his team an extra selection through the top three MVP placement in his third season. That’s a more difficult path that’ll presumably happen far less frequently than the Rookie of the Year route. They’ll take it all the same.
In February, the Royals signed Witt to an 11-year extension that guaranteed him a little less than $289MM. That did not take away from Witt’s eligibility for the Prospect Promotion Incentive even though he was no longer slated for a salary around the league minimum. He’s likely to finish as the MVP runner-up behind Aaron Judge after racking up a season worth around nine wins above replacement. Witt won the batting title and led the majors with 211 hits. He finished the year with a .332/.389/.588 slash line with 32 homers and 109 runs batted in while playing plus defense at the infield’s most demanding position. The Royals won 86 games to snap a nine-year postseason drought.
This is the only guaranteed PPI selection to date, but there could be more once award winners are announced next week. The Padres and Orioles would stand to gain an extra pick if Jackson Merrill and Colton Cowser win their respective Rookie of the Year awards. Austin Wells is also eligible but is a longer shot to win AL Rookie of the Year.
The Pirates cannot get an extra pick for Paul Skenes finishing in the top three in Cy Young balloting because Pittsburgh did not call the star righty up until early May. They would not receive a selection if Skenes wins Rookie of the Year for the same reason. Skenes would earn himself a full year of service time in the likely event that he places in the top two in ROY voting, however.
The other Rookie of the Year finalists also do not meet the PPI criteria. Luis Gil was not on two of the preseason Top 100 lists at Baseball America, ESPN or MLB Pipeline — the necessary prospect status to earn a pick. The Brewers carried Jackson Chourio for a full season but signed him to an eight-year extension last December. Eddy reported in September that players who sign an extension before their MLB debuts are not eligible for a PPI selection. Chourio’s extension differs from Witt’s because the latter had already played in MLB before signing.