What is a CB round in the MLB draft? How much salary will the Competitive Balance round draftees make in 2023?

The MLB draft has a few different pieces than other leagues, and one way is the Competitive Balance (CB) rounds. These rounds, divided as A and B, come after the first and second rounds of the MLB draft and are a way for lower-market teams that do not have a large payroll to compete with baseball's big dogs.

But what exactly is the Competitive Balance pick, and how much would someone selected with one of these picks be slotted to make? Let's take a closer look and discuss everything we need to know about these types of picks.

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What exactly is a Competitive Balance pick?

2023 MLB Draft presented by Nike

Major League Baseball has a complete definition of what teams are eligible for a CB pick:

"The 10 lowest-revenue clubs and the clubs from the 10 smallest markets are eligible to receive a Competitive Balance pick (fewer than 20 clubs are in the mix each year, as some clubs qualify under both criteria)."

That means only some teams will be eligible for this selection in the MLB draft. However, these picks can be traded only once but not for cash.

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How much money will the CB round draftee get for being selected?

2023 MLB Draft presented by Nike

The MLB draft is interesting with how players and teams will be compensated.

There are two different rounds with these picks, as the Competitive Balance Round A is after the first round of the MLB draft. There were 10 picks in the 2023 draft, and below are the teams with those selections.

Pick	Team
30	Seattle Mariners
31	Tampa Bay Rays
32	New York Mets
33	Milwaukee Brewers
34	Minnesota Twins
35	Miami Marlins
36	Los Angeles Dodgers
37	Detroit Tigers
38	Cincinnati Reds
39	Oakland Athletics

Seeing the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers on the list could be a bit alarming, but that is because they exceeded the tax threshold by more than $40 million and dropped 10 spots in the draft as a result.

The Competitive Balance Round A teams are given around $5.25 million for the picks. That means MLB gives a value for a pick, and if the team goes above that slotted value, they can incur some penalties. If they go under the value, they are given that as bonus pool money to sign players.

Below are the Round B picks, which are before the second round of the draft.

Pick	Team
62	Cleveland Guardians
63	Baltimore Orioles
64	Arizona Diamondbacks
65	Colorado Rockies
66	Kansas City Royals
67	Pittsburgh Pirates

These picks are slotted to get around $500,000 more than Round A teams, which will help these clubs not pay extraordinary amounts to get players to join their minor league system.

The minimum salary in the 2023 CB rounds is set to be $720,000. Minor league players with previous major league service will receive a minimum salary of $117,400 this year.

After the first day of the MLB draft, no more picks of these kinds will be made. Did your favorite team wind up with one of those picks? Let us know in the comments section below!