Welcome to the 2026 Draft Signing Period!

Now that the 2026 First-Year Player Draft is in the books, the signing period is upon us. With some limited exceptions, this year's signing deadline is 5:00 pm ET on July 27, 2026. As most of our readers know, each team's spending on draft pick bonuses is capped. The overall bonus cap is determined by the number and placement of each team's selections.

The bonus cap sets an aggregate limit for a team to spend on its selections in the first ten rounds and also limits teams from spending over $150,000 on players taken after the 10th round (the excess on any late-round bonuses will count against the bonus pool). Boston's cap is $8,219,200 this year. If the club exceeds its pool: (1) by 0-5%, it will be charged a 75% tax on the excess; (2) by 5-10%, it will pay the same tax and will also lose its first-round pick next season; (3) by 10-15%, it will be charged a 100% tax on the excess and lose its first- and second-round picks next season; and (4) by more than 15%, 100% tax on the excess and lose its next two first-round picks.

Those are obviously harsh penalties, making it highly unlikely that the Red Sox will go more than 5% over the pool limit in any year. However, the team has shown that it is willing to pay the requisite tax and go up to 5% over the cap, which would place the team's spending limit (not counting the first $150,000 given to any pick after the 10th round) at about $8,630,160. One other wrinkle to remember is that if Boston fails to sign any of its picks from the first 10 rounds, the team's pool will be reduced by the slot amount for the unsigned player's draft position. Here are the bonus slots for each of Boston's top picks:

1st round: $4,373,900

CBB round: $1,317,300

3rd round $815,700

5th round: $454,100

6th round: $352,900

7th round: $278,700

8th round: $227,200

9th round: $205,300

10th round: $194,000

At first blush, it appears that all of Boston's picks in the first 10 rounds are signable, and many draftees likely already have pre-draft deals in place. This is pure speculation, but first round pick Jake Schaffner should be under slot, and perhaps well underslot? Meanwhile, third round pick Jace Mataczynski and ninth round pick Martin Shelar will each likely to get well over slot, and the same is also possible for tenth round pick Kaleb LaFavor. At this stage, I'm not seeing any draftees after the 10th round who would get significantly over the $150,000 threshold, which makes things maybe more predictable if not a little less exciting. Maybe 12th round pick Jacob Webster could be in line for a bit over the threshold to sign him away from his commitment to Loyola Marymount. Similarly, 18th round pick Ethan Offing is committed to Clemson. It's possible he doesn't sign or is an alternative in the event Webster doesn't sign. Or ... maybe he signs at $150,000 or below - it's all a guessing game this early on.

For some additional detail, my initial projections on who will sign are in the 2026 Draft Signing Period Discussion Thread in the SoxProspects Forum.  The projections will be updated regularly, and that thread will include detailed discussion and snippets of info from across the web.

Mike Andrews is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of SoxProspects.com

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