Major League Baseball continues its quest to implement an international draft, per recent reports from Jeff Passan of ESPN and Ben Badler of Baseball America. MLB has discussed the possibility of introducing a draft by 2020 or 2021, according to Badler, with the league having held talks with members of its Trainer Partnership Program – a group of Latin American trainers known as buscones. To this point, though, the league hasn’t engaged in talks with the MLBPA on the subject of a draft. It’s one of several important issues the two sides will have to iron out before the current collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, 2021.
Thus far in MLB’s preliminary discussions on the matter, it has considered a 15-round, 450-selection draft with a hard-slotted system, per Badler, who adds teams would be able trade picks. It appears players who go undrafted would be able to sign for up to $50K, though Badler notes that number could change. Players still wouldn’t be able to sign until the age of 16, but clubs have been known to exploit that – which has been a key part of talks between the league and the buscones.
No fewer than four Latin players from the 2021-22 international signing period agreed to deals with teams when they were just 13, Passan reports. Furthermore, some international players drop out of school when they’re as young as 10 to focus on baseball, and Passan writes that performance-enhancing drug use among these children has been incentivized as they attempt to garner interest from MLB clubs. As a result, there are some influential buscones who are on board with a draft, Passan relays. But others are less enthusiastic about the idea because the financial cap on draft picks would further limit the players’ earnings (and the trainers’ in turn).
Under the current system, an international signing period that begins July 2 and runs into the next June, most teams have somewhere between $4.3MM and just under $6.5MM in their bonus pools. The lone exception is the Braves, who have a penniless pool thanks to violations from their previous front office. Back in 2017, the league issued a permanent ban to ex-general manager John Coppolella and stripped the Braves of 13 international prospects thanks to the misdeeds of him and some of his Atlanta cohorts on the foreign market. However, it’s clear there are still seedy elements at play under the present international setup, and it seems that’s on MLB’s mind as it attempts to shift to a draft.
Considering the frayed relationship between the league’s owners and players, this will be a situation worth watching over the next couple years as the two sides try to avoid a work stoppage. Notably, some Latin players – including Nelson Cruz and Edwin Encarnacion – have spoken out against an international draft, which Adrian Burgos of La Vida Baseball covered in 2017.
This should’ve happened years ago. MLB catch up to the other leagues already.
Globally, the NBA may be the only league that has an international draft. Soccer – the most popular sport in the world – manages to operate without one. Why does baseball need one?
Nobody really cares about PED use. That’s MLB’s red herring. The ONLY upside – for anyone – to implementing an international draft would be to save the owners money.
Why should the fans give a rip? Why should the Latin players allow it? Leave the system alone.
I’m with you on all points. I would add that there is plenty or parity now without additional redistribution of wealth. I’m tired of seeing the best fan bases penalized. There needs to be some outlet for the teams with the strongest fan bases to gain a competitive advantage by investing surplus in on-field talent. Otherwise you are creating market inefficiencies that encourage owners to hoard profits.
The NHL.
Exactly, how could somebody totally neglect mentioning the NHL and drafting international prospects?
Too bad other leagues don’t follow the NHL draft system.
@FromTheCheapSeats except that we’re using the pinnacle of our capitalism to exploit children in impoverished nations.
I’m all for the free market…but owners swinging their phallic dollar bills shouldn’t be motivation for families to pull prepubescents out of schools. For every one Edwin Encarnacion there are hundreds of failures.
42 comments so far with about 40 that hilariously ignorant.
Not a single mention of Puerto Rico. Look up how joining the draft it setback baseball on the island for decades. But yeah everyone get their comically bad takes in on this subject.
No one has your great insight, oh wise one. How can you grace us with your presence knowing how superior you are in both intellect and humility? We wither away by comparison to you. Oh by the way, your fly’s open.
tie that with better pay for minor leaguers and dorms!
Why do you care what they make?
if minor leaguers continue to be shorthanded, the decline of athletes wanting to play professional baseball will become more inevitable than already perceived. raising salaries and benefits needs to happen.
MLB players and the league could give a crap. Plenty of poor Latin Countries to supply the demand.
Exactly. The kids sitting in their rooms playing video games couldn’t possibly be as hungry as the impoverished kid looking for a payday, any payday to get off the island.
You asked why he cared, and you got a very good answer as to why you should care to.
There’s no shortage of people trying to make the major leagues. It’s really not a huge deal when the occasional prospect chooses a different sport. There is not a problem here that requires solving. The main benefit of getting paid to play baseball is getting paid to play baseball. And there are more than plenty of people signing up for that without coersion
Just because there’s people willing doesn’t mean they’re all that good.
Better athletes play better baseball. Better athletes also tend to be able to play other sports, so you have to give them a reason to choose baseball
Otherwise you just get stuck with second tier talent, which gives you, the fan, a lesser product.
So, again, if you care about the quality of MLB, you need to care about this.
why do you care that we care? isnt the difference between what owners and players similar to that of employees and employeers? its almost the perfect metaphor.
Why in the world would the MLBPA care out conditions in the Minors? That’s simply not going to happen.
Because it’s becoming increasingly hard to get the big payouts that used to offset the years of criminally poor salaries
Finally. We need this. More money would be available for free agents. Asking latin players, of course they’re not going to not being way overpaid.
Ask the mlb players, they’ll say otherwise.
Yeah. More money to pay very average Major League players $10mil per year, on FULLY GUARANTEED contracts.
Yeah. That’s exactly what MLB needs.
Yayyy more exploitation, I’m so excited to owners completely cap earnings without providing any of these players with any sort of recourse. The draft is a complete farce. The only thing it accomplishes is making owners happy. If you think about it honestly it’s sort of sickening.
This whole theory falls apart from the start because there’s no shortage of money for free agents as it is
Teams are choosing not to spend, they’re making more money than ever.
Just a note, the Braves aren’t barred from spending completely, it’s more that they have no bonus pool and that they’re limited to $10k per signing bonus (as those kinds of bonuses don’t count against the bonus pool).
Why don’t they combine the two drafts like the NBA? Include the international players with the college and high school players. The same teams are dominating the international signing period. The Yankees and Red Sox and Astros and Cubs seem to get the top international players every year. Dodgers too. Teams like the Orioles and Tigers are completely blocked out. Later picks could be used on 16 and 17 year old players that would love to join the MLB, where many high school players will go onto college so they can move up in the draft. The international players would jump at the signing bonus for their draft slot. Instead of having to accept the pool allotted to MLB.
MLB should also set aside some money to invest in the international leagues. Each league that sends a player to the MLB draft should be entitled to a percentage of some fund. That money gets used to help support the entire league, not just one team. Imagine how 1 million dollars could improve a team in the Dominican or Haiti.
How many Haitians are even in minor league ball? It’s not exactly a hotbed for baseball talent.
None… considering they share an island with the DR, you would think there would be more. Invest there and I bet you would get some.
Miguel Jean “Sano”….Felix Pie…..Touki Toussaint….there’s more than you think.
If Felix Pie is the second name you come up with, I stand by my statement.
Genetics and body types must play a part…
Toukie was drafted out of high school, while he may be of Haitian decent, not the same as an international player signing.
I would really like to go down this rabbit hole.
Some Yankee International signings…
Sanchez, Estrada, Severino, Andujar, Tanaka, Park, Acevedo (23), Garcia (4), Florial(1), Contrares (10), Medina (14) (prospect rank)
They also traded for Torres and Chapman who were international signings.
MLB teams over the years have built state of the art academies in the Dominican Republic, and invested millions.
Yes MLB has invested in DR and MLB has benefited from this. So has the DR.
Florial is from Haiti. Sano also… from what I just read, Haiti has trouble producing birth certificates. Players can move to DR and get them.
Because the international prospects would have to wait until they’re 18 and then compete with players who have hand way better development opportunities than they ever will
There isn’t even high school baseball in most of these countries. The international players will get hosed by that deal, so their respective countries will never agree to it.
Since 2001 66 teams have added 30% to their payroll. 27 teams have increased their total wins from the yr before, 5 stayed the same and 34 decreased! Average increase 0.3 of a win lol. You could be smart and want the team to slash payroll instead of crying that the players are going bankrupt getting paid millions in years where they aren’t worth the league minimum. Or move to Sweden.
The problem is most people are ignorant to the actual structure and workings of the Latin American system. Which is a major hurdle. Which is why they in no way can be compared the nba or nhl or even soccer for that matter, because they simply have an amateur system or circuit in place. A draft does nothing, but offer owners absolute control and depress wages. Even when people suggest it’ll even out talent, that’s a bit of a joke because it’s still and will always be regional. Them you add into the fact that the only available recourse these players have is there ability to chose their destination. The system is broke, but this does nothing to fix or improve Latin America, just owners.
The talent distribution argument also falls flat because you’re already seeing a wide array of both small and large market teams being major players for the IFAs. The only team not benefitting are the ones too stupid to see the obvious advantages.
Show me a list of international prospects signed by the 5 lowest market teams and compare them to the 5 largest market teams. It’s not even close. At all.
sorry, if you have a point to prove, you have to do the work.
One draft. American kids are at disadvantage. Why doesn’t mlb invest in baseball in USA? I guess they don’t realize that lacrosse is the new sexy sport and is killing little league. Wake up baseball.
They’ve ignored the inner cities to the extent of the African American superstar is all but gone.
Those players choose to play other sports, more exciting and faster paced which displays the athleticism better.
How are they at a disadvantage?
Americans are not at a disadvantage lol. They have a basic infrastructure, recourse, and MLB has started to pour millions into facilities in communities. Nobody is playing little league or legion ball because times have changed. Colleges and scouts are no longer able to check out high school games, so much of your recruiting and scouting is done on the summer circuits. The only issue I have with MLB and wanting them to grow the sport domestically is to invest in college baseball and scholarships. A majority of ADs will continue to cut from the 11.75 mark, because of the sport operates at a loss due to the NCAAs stupidity. Let’s face it the MLB is losing support, because of its stuffiness, the fact that it’s not appealing or sane to play minor league baseball, and athletes tend to gravitate to sports that are headcount sports. Trying to woo a kid to take a 25% v a full ride is ridiculous.
US kids would be at a disadvantage??? Good lord you literally have no idea what you’re talking about.
Why don’t you venture to explain why he’s wrong? Maybe you could make a point instead of being a total tool. Now go back and finish clipping your grandmas toenails.
If you know anything about American history whatsoever you wouldn’t need anyone to explain why his comment was ridiculous.
Well, the simple fact that American players have the option of going to college and therefore some leverage would be enough to destroy the theory of disadvantage fairly easily… But why state the obvious?
American kids don’t have the option of being signed at 16, and making 1000% more than they’d make at that age. Stop with the worrying about how third world country youths would be hurt, and turn your attention to inner city youths in this country. No the overwhelming majority of American kids don’t have an option to go to college…But why state something so wrong to try and feel superior?
Pretty much 100 percent of any American kid who has a prayer of getting drafted has the option of college because scholarships. Seriously, has anyone heard of a high school draftee who didn’t have the option of college?
And the ones who don’t have a shot at getting drafted are utterly irrelevant for the context of this discussion.
Also the in the context of this conversation is those third world kids you haven’t given a thought to, pretty much none of which have this same option of athletic scholarships, would see their earnings potential evaporate (the reason why baseball wants this is the first place).
But sure, let’s pretend it’s group A who’s ‘disadvantaged’.
It’s always a good day when one can be demonstrably right and superior at the same time…
I don’t know what’s best for the league, I just hope they hammer any team that tries to circumvent the rules.
If they do an international draft, then they need to have players comply with the same rules that American kids have to. They shouldn’t be allowed to be drafted at 16 or 17. They should be encouraging these kids to at least get through high school. Otherwise, you have a lot of uneducated Latin players that don’t understand things like PEDs and the crazy amounts of money involved with pro sports. Oh wait, that’s pretty much what we have now.
And no they shouldn’t have to depend on agents or anyone else that only benefits from them monetarily. They have their bank account as their #1 interest, not the welfare of players. If a player get busted for PEDS, that agent will just sign up a few more uneducated 16 year old kids and continue to make money.
The current system is not set up to benefit international players. I don’t know if a draft is the answer or not, I can’t see into the future, but I do know that something needs to be done.
Baseball could develop the inner city big time and these athletes are usually over 6 feet & are playing football and basketball. Baseball has many more opportunities than basketball but basketball is the cheapest sport to play. All you need is a ball and a hoop. Baseball used to have around 15% African American players it dipped all the way down to 8% and has steadily risen. With the parents being more cautious about football, this is an opportunity to invest in these young players. How many 6’6 basketball players fizzle out in college & how many get un-drafted when declaring for the NBA draft? If baseball increased their development, we could have these incredible athletes hitting homers left and right. Aaron Judge, Darryl Strawberry, The Big Hurt, Doc Gooden, Willie Horton, Reggie Jackson, c’mon guys, get out there and get baseball to make the investment!!
In 1981 the percentage of African American players was at it’s highest at 18.7%, and the All Star team was made up of 22%. Opening day the percentage of African American player declined to the lowest in history at 8.4%. The 2018 All Star team had less than 3% make up of African American players.
“it dipped all the way down to 8% and has steadily risen” It is on the decline and has been for years. The fact that black colleges can’t field a team, and most college programs have zero black players isn’t helping the issue.
with how international baseball is, this is utterly impossible. guys in countries where baseball is only starting to become popular are at a disadvantage. guys who are really good at the game wolnt be bid over anymore. actually, i hear a radio host mention the idea of abolishing drafts in general. makes complete sense; you play under your terms.
You have to look at it from an owners perspective
Which basically means anything to depress salaries, and damn the consequences…
Let’s be honest, inner city kids don’t care if they hit the lottery at the 7-11 or at the circle K, they just care that thy hit the lottery. While all they don’t hit the jackpots, like a 1st round draft pick, several hit lesser prizes like full college scholarships. They are more likely to get this from football than baseball, that’s is why more choose football. If you want to fix baseball in America, give kids an incentive to chose baseball.
The international Free Agents can’t afford to wait until they are 18 to get paid. Also the buscons would have to be accommodated so that these kids would have a program to develop skills. Apples and oranges with the Amateur Draft.