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Kiley McDaniel
Colorado Rockies shortstop Ethan Holliday, the fourth overall selection in the MLB draft, signed for a $9 million bonus on Tuesday, the biggest bonus received by a high school player in draft history.
Holliday, ranked as the top high school player in the draft and second overall by ESPN, is the son of former Rockies legend Matt Holliday and is the younger brother of Baltimore Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday, who was the first overall pick in the 2022 draft.
Ethan Holliday’s $9 million bonus is tied for the fourth-highest bonus of all time.
The top three high school bonus figures all now belong to former Oklahoma high school shortstops.
Jackson Holliday held the all-time high school bonus record ($8.19 million) until first Eli Willits ($8.2 million) and then Ethan Holliday surpassed it this year. Willits was the first overall pick by the Washington Nationals and was ranked as the third-best player in the draft by ESPN.
The MLB draft is unique in that teams get a fixed bonus pool based on the picks that they have but are free to spend those bonuses however they wish among their picks. The Nationals did the same thing with their top pick in the 2024 and 2025 drafts, taking a player who was considered a slightly lesser consensus talent and would take a slightly lesser bonus to then spread the savings to later picks.