SAN DIEGO -- The Padres rounded out their 2024 Draft class with 10 more selections on Tuesday, bringing their total to 22 overall -- five high schoolers and 17 college players; 13 position players, eight pitchers and one two-way player.

Here are three takeaways from a busy Draft week:

1. High school early, college late
Hey, it has worked for the Padres in the past. Why change now? Much has been made of the Padres’ tendency to draft high schoolers early under general manager A.J. Preller. In each of their past nine Drafts, they've spent a first-round pick on a high school player. They did so again with left-hander Kash Mayfield out of Elk City High in Oklahoma.

Preller’s Padres have had success with that strategy -- just check the 2024 All-Star Game, which features CJ Abrams and Jackson Merrill. But they've also had success with college players in the later rounds -- players like Jakob Marsee and Nathan Martorella, who were packaged in the trade for Luis Arraez.

• Padres take lefty Mayfield with their top pick

With that in mind, the makeup of this Padres class shouldn't be a surprise. They took three straight high schoolers to start, then, beginning in Round 6, they reeled off a stretch of 14 consecutive college players. Those college players could play a key role in quickly replenishing the farm, which has taken a hit from recent trades.

“We’re expecting these guys to get in the system and make an impact,” said scouting director Chris Kemp. “It wouldn’t surprise if -- like a couple years ago, when we sent Marsee, [Graham] Pauley, Martorella to [Single-A] Lake Elsinore, and they won the Cal League in ‘22 -- I would foresee a few of these guys joining up with the Storm, hopefully in the next few weeks.”

2. Bonus, baby
The Padres took advantage of a much larger bonus pool ($9,360,500) this year -- the direct result of two additional picks they received when free agents Blake Snell and Josh Hader turned down qualifying offers, then signed elsewhere.

On Wednesday, Kemp laid out the specifics of why that extra money was helpful. With the two additional post-fourth-round selections, the Padres drafted Kavares Tears out of the University of Tennessee and Clark Candiotti out of the University of Arizona, who might end up signing under slot value.

• Breaking down the bevy of Padres Day 2 picks

Those selections allowed the Padres to use their fifth-rounder on Kale Fountain, who Kemp said ranked among the top 30-35 players on their original Draft board. Fountain, who set all sorts of high school records in Nebraska -- including homers, RBIs and steals -- has an 80-grade power tool, Kemp said (essentially the highest grade possible).

Without the expanded bonus pool, the Padres almost certainly wouldn’t have drafted Fountain, because they wouldn’t have had enough money to sign him in addition to their two Day 1 selections -- lefties Mayfield and Boston Bateman.

“It was a 180,” Kemp said. “We felt very constrained last year with a pool closer to 5 mil. It was almost double this year -- so, allowing us to get a Bateman and a Fountain, along with Mayfield, guys we had in our top 35. We ended up getting three of our top 35, in being able to get Kale and Boston, where last year I don’t think financially that would’ve been possible.”

3. Sign ’em up
The Padres signed all of their 2023 Draft picks, and Kemp said he’s hopeful for more of the same this summer. He’s at least confident in signing 21 of the 22, with Chase Fralick, the team’s final selection, as the lone question mark.

Fralick is a high school catcher from Georgia with a commitment to Auburn, and an accomplished youth tennis player, as well.

That’ll give the Padres some interesting pieces. Their 11th-rounder, Sean Barnett, is a two-way player out of Wingate University, and the Padres plan to continue that path. He sports a mid-90s fastball and a power bat that could play well in an outfield corner.

Another intriguing Day 3 pick: Tanner Smith, a hard-throwing righty out of Harvard, went in the 15th round. Kemp noted that he had “some of the best stuff for us on the Day 3 board.”

In the 10th round, the Padres selected infielder Jack Costello out of the University of San Diego, which was clearly a point of pride for Kemp.

“We’re the San Diego Padres,” Kemp said, “and if there’s talent around here … you need to protect the backyard. I’m a firm believer in that.”