The Yankees kicked off Day 1 of the 2022 MLB Draft with a solid haul based on industry standards, nabbing college players Spencer Jones and Drew Thorpe with their first two picks.
Rounds three and beyond are, well, way harder to interpret, to say the least. Ever since the league instituted the hard cap system after the 2011 CBA, even the first round began increasingly difficult for the average fan to see the larger strategy unless you had real insider sources. Going under-slot value for a first-rounder inevitably means that money will be redistributed to go above and beyond — often on high school players in an attempt to lure them away from college, gambling that they would have become first round-quality players by their junior year.