Alex Anthopoulos was willing to go further than he ever has for exciting Braves draft pick
Atlanta Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos is bound to make waves this trade deadline season. He's going to be very active as he looks to add a ton of talent to the Braves major league roster to try to boost his team to the top of the National League. The season feels eerily similar to the 2021 season in which Ronald Acuña Jr. went down with a knee injury, Anthopoulos worked some deadline magic and the Braves won the World Series.
But before Anthopoulos is able to work any sort of trade magic, the front office in Atlanta had to open their check books to write an unprecedented for their first round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft.
Anthopoulos and the Braves have never paid full slot value to a single first round pick while they've been under his leadership. That was until this year, when the Braves selected Cam Caminiti, a prep left handed pitcher with some of the highest upside in the class.
Braves, Anthopoulos sign first round pick LHP Cam Caminiti to full slot value deal
The Braves and Caminiti agreed on a $3,556,300 deal that would make him the first top selection to sign for the full slot with the Braves since Anthopoulos took over, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution' Justin Toscano and MLB Pipeline' Jim Callis. And the Braves general manager opened his checkbook for this young lefty for quite a good reason.
I can confirm that Braves first-round pick Cam Caminiti signed for $3,556,300 — full slot value. Caminiti is the first Braves first-rounder to get full slot value since Alex Anthopoulos took over. The deal was negotiated by CAA Sports. @jimcallisMLB on it
— Justin Toscano (@JustinCToscano) July 20, 2024
The Braves may have gotten the steal of the draft when they selected this prep arm with the 24th overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. Caminiti was MLB Pipeline's 15th-ranked prospect in the Draft and a consensus first-round selection. For him to fall all the way to the back half of the first round was surprising in itself.
Caminiti, 17, has six 50+ grade tools on MLB Pipeline's 20-80 grade scale. He has a four-pitch arsenal, all of them at least projecting as average pitches, with above-average command. He pounds the zone with his mid-nineties fastball that can reach as high as 98 mph. The lefty has as much potential as any arm in the Draft, largely due to the fact that he's still just 17 years old.
It's quite rare for Alex Anthopoulos to step outside of his comfort zone and to see him do something unprecedented. But when you're dealing with a arm like Caminiti's, the front office will do whatever they have to do in order to get him to sign on the dotted line.
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