MLB has changed its rules governing the signings of international players, Baseball America’s Ben Badler reports. MLB has determined that teams may not host players at their facilities until they are 16 years old or are within six months of being eligible to sign, whichever comes first. Therefore, most players who will become eligible to sign on July 2 of next year will not be allowed at MLB team facilities until January 2 to showcase players who will be eligible to sign in July.
The news is significant, Badler notes, because teams currently invite players to their facilities to evaluate them there, using their own drills. Also, leagues like the Dominican Prospect League and International Prospect League currently use MLB team facilities, with games open to all teams to watch. Now those leagues won’t be able to use MLB facilities until January 2.
The rule changes will also limit the number of nights young prospects are allowed to stay at MLB team facilities, and will prevent prospects from living with MLB team employees.
This seems like a bad policy change. I wonder what the benefit of this is. Teams have invested in these facilities and now you change the rules on them and it seems to punish the development of these kids as well.
The handlers of these kids are just going to be way more important now.
Wow, I must be missing something and someone will come on here and explain why, but getting kids off the street and into a safe place to sleep and eat, seems like its a good thing.
This is really bad news for the Cubs, who built this monument of a facility in the Dominican, which was constructed mainly to gain an advantage over other teams by evaluating players before others could.
Is it me, or does it seems MLB is trying to hold back the Cubs in development area now, but it was okay back in the days for the Yankees, Cardinals, Mets, Red Sox & Dodgers to grab their guys.
I doubt they are intentionally holding back the Cubs, but regardless of intent, Theo & co certainly have had to deal with some setbacks in the way they go about the business of rebuilding the team.
If this is to be considered the first change implemented under the Manfred regime, it’s a troublesome sign.
Rest assured, these kids will still leave home to play ball in organized training camps. But, rather than receiving instruction at safe, MLB-overseen facilities with things like beds and 3 square meals, they’ll be trained at buscones-operated facilities with no running water and cockroach-infested living quarters. But, hey…at least these 14 yr-olds get to spend more time with their “agents,” which will give them plenty of opportunity to sign over 50% of their future earnings in exchange for representation.
The rule is irrational. It presumes these kids live in terrific middle to upper middle class neighborhoods with luxurious high school stadiums and related facilities.
good luck enforcing this nonsense