Mariners Awarded First Round Pick for Julio Rodriguez's Rookie of the Year Win

The Diamondbacks have a big incentive if one of their top prospects can win Rookie of the Year in the 2023 season.

The current Collective Bargaining Agreement added a Prospect Promotion Incentive, which rewards teams for promoting their prospects on Opening Day instead of stashing them in the minor leagues to gain a year of control. The PPI awards teams who promote prospects who are on at least two Top 100 lists between MLB Pipeline, ESPN, and Baseball America for Opening Day and finish in the Top 5 of the Rookie of the Year race. A player who wins Rookie of the Year or a Top-3 finish in their league's Most Valuable Player or Cy Young voting in their pre-arbitration seasons could net their teams an additional draft pick. 

The Seattle Mariners are the first team to benefit from this, promoting outfielder and top prospect Julio Rodriguez to the active roster for Opening Day. Rodriguez did not disappoint, hitting .284/.345/.509 with 28 home runs, 25 stolen bases, and 6.2 bWAR to lead the Seattle to their first postseason appearance in 21 years. As a result he won the American League Rookie of the Year in a landslide over Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman. The Mariners made a calculated risk to bring up Rodriguez, but reap the awards as they were awarded the 29th overall pick in the 2023 Draft. The 2022 slot value for that pick was $2.55 million, which drastically improves the organization's flexibility in maneuvering the draft and landing a top talent that fell due to signing bonus demands.

Seeing how the Mariners greatly benefitted, the Diamondbacks could stand to benefit as well in 2023. They already have two consensus Top 100 guys who could make the Opening Day Roster in Corbin Carroll and Brandon Pfaadt. Drey Jameson is another player in the organization who has a shot at potentially winning Rookie of the Year in 2023, but whether or not he lands on at least two Top 100 lists remains to be seen. Carroll, Pfaadt, and Jameson face stiff competition from other top prospects in National League organizations for the award. If one of the three can win the award, the player takes home an additional $750K while the team has another $2.5M to spend in the draft.