AUBURN | Tanner Burns could become Auburn’s ninth first round MLB draft choice and the third under Butch Thompson. At the very least, it should be the 46th consecutive draft to include an Auburn player.

But for Thompson and his staff, the most important thing to come out of Wednesday and Thursday’s draft will be clarity over next year’s roster.

“I think by the time the sun comes up Friday, a lot of this stuff will be settled, because I think it’s a straightforward, abbreviated—very abbreviated—draft,” Thompson said. “It’s going to get right to the point. It seems like most of these clubs, if they draft a player, I would think that it would be a high percentage of guys signing in this draft.”

This year’s draft has been contracted to five rounds with the first round Wednesday night and rounds 2-5 Thursday. With a cap of $20,000 on free agent signing fees and last season’s seniors being granted an extra year of eligibility, that should mean more current players electing to return and more signees choosing college over the minor leagues.

The returning seniors are exempt from the 11.7 scholarship limit, but Auburn and other schools will have to find a way to divide a limited amount of money between the extra number of juniors and signees expected to play college.

On the other hand, not many high profile juniors or signees are expected to accept a $20,000 free agent bonus if they’re not drafted so Auburn’s staff should know right away how many players will be eligible for the roster, which won’t have a limit for the 2021 season.

“We feel like we’ve been waiting on this for a few months, and we really haven’t known what’s going to happen,” assistant coach Karl Nonemaker said. “So you really can’t do too much or know what your roster is going to look like because, let’s face it, the draft is one of the biggest days of the year for a draft-eligible baseball player. So, hopefully this year, I think, one of the things that might be a little bit different is, whoever gets drafted in those first five rounds, I think the teams are going to feel pretty certain that they can sign them.

“I don’t think there will be quite the craziness that there has been in the past because usually the craziness happens between the sixth and the 20th round, with guys that get drafted late, and the team has four-or-five-hundred-thousand dollars in savings and they can really do some different things. So, we expect it to be uncertain but once the draft happens I think we’ll have a pretty good feel within a few days of what’s likely to happen, and we’re ready to know and start really getting a feel for what next year’s team looks like.”

Burns should be the first Auburn player taken, potentially as high as the middle of the first round. Fellow starting pitcher, Bailey Horn, is also expected to hear his name called. Other potential draftees include outfielder Steven Williams and relief pitcher Cody Greenhill.

Several Auburn signees could also be drafted including infielders Warner Blakely from Edison High School in Detroit, Mich., and Cole Foster from Plano Senior in Plano, Texas. Junior college standouts Bobby Pierce and Garrett Martin are also possibilities.

Wednesday night's first round gets underway at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN and MLB Network.