Major League Baseball and the MLBPA agreed to the framework of a shortened 2020 amateur draft back in March. As of earlier this week, the event was reportedly set to take place June 10 and consist of five or 10 rounds. However, the union isn’t on board with how the league wants to handle the event.
According to Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic, the union turned down the league’s latest 10-round draft proposal. The MLBPA understandably wants as many rounds of the draft as possible to occur because it would benefit the players entering the pro ranks, so 10 instead of five would be a plus for the union. But as you’d expect, the two sides are at odds over money. The league’s plan is to keep slot values where they were last year in the first five rounds, but in six through 10, the values would be cut to 50 percent and there would be “a hard cap on the signing bonus at slot value,” Rosenthal and Drellich write. Moreover, the league would limit teams to signing five undrafted players for $20K apiece – the maximum they’ll be able to receive this year – but an unlimited amount at $5K or less.
While the union isn’t a fan of this proposal, the league could still go forward with what they agreed to a month ago. In the meantime, assuming the draft does still happen in June (it’s expected to, per Rosenthal and Drellich), both sides could continue to negotiate on changes. It would behoove the two to find as much common ground as possible and limit tension with serious talks on a new collective bargaining agreement not far away.
The MiLB needs to trim the amount of leagues to simply AAA, AA, and Single A. This can raise the salary of the players in those respected league, while the rest of the NCAA players who graduate, would then need to go play unaffiliated ball elsewhere, or get a job. There’s no reason to have 6 or however many minor leagues, and no reason for 40 rounds in a draft. I’d say 15 is fair with covid-19 or not.
Granted short season should not be a thing but I do think they should have rookie ball, a ball, a plus, aa, and triple a.
They can get rid of short season a
Well I think short season makes sense for the players who get drafted in June. Not to mention, MLB teams have enough players in there DR facilities to make 1-2 teams
No need if there’s sinister significantly fewer draftees. They can go to extended spring and/or join a league in progress at any point.
There is a big jump between R and A. Short season leagues help bridge that jump. I would only cut so teams only get one short season affiliate
teams have the money to support the same number if players they already have in their systems and pay them more. cutting teams to keep your bottom line is just a cheap way to do it.
The reason they have so many teams is that the more players you can have in your organization, you’re likely to see more of those players develop into something valuable. It seems kind of foolish to be trying to cut teams when the cost is so low compared to the benefits of having an extra 25 (or however big MiLB rosters are) players that could develop into MLB guys
So you want to put a 16 yr old international signing into A ball? That’s f***ing stupid
I’m not sure the owners of the affiliates you want to chop will agree with you. That’s at least 6o businesses you are talking about cutting.
It must leave a powerless feeling if you’re a potential draft prospect – your future is being bargained away by two sides at the table, and none of them represent you.
MLB IS SOOOOOO CHEAP!!!!!!!! Nickle and diming the umps, doing ST in each teams park, shorting the 5-10 round players that dont get 1M+ bonuses anyways. Making billions of dollars year after year and these people cant afford to pay draft prospects fair value. MLB OWNERS ARE THE CHEAPEST D-BAGS ON THE PLANET!!!!! I hope every owner in MLB gets the virus these cheap crooks. Gotta make it 500 for a family to see a game but umps take a pay cut that is so insignificant to the overall MLB payroll numbers its stupid.
Maybe if the umps did suck and actually called a clean game. Matt holiday never touched home and tino Martinez struck out
Did not suck
It’s called capitalism.
republicans love it…..
Sure do. Nobody made baseball players choose baseball.
They could of chosen to pursued useful degrees in engineering, science, mathematics, business, even geological sciences and walked out of college looking for a good career making 70k+ starting.
Fun part of capitalism. You’re allowed to decide what you want to do, where you want to spend your money and on what,and can choose a path for your life you want. Some paths are harder than others but nobody is stopping you but you.
As opposed to socialism? Where we force everyone to play baseball only and everyone all makes the same salary from the top player down to “crash Davis” of the league.
Yeah, I’ll keep the capitalism thank you.
Jorge –
You’re welcome to leave the country at any time
here we go again…
Dissent is the foundation of our republic.
Understanding socialism would be a useful starting point for any future response.
If you’re spending $500 taking your family to a game it’s either because you have a family of 20 or because you spend more money that you need to. I’m a Yankees fan so prices here are about as high as they are anywhere but I can easily get tickets on the secondary market for under $25 including fees to many (but not all) games. Depending on where you live you can find free street parking if you’re willing to walk 15 minutes or so or you can take the subway to Yankee stadium and take other public transportation to get yourself to the subway if you don’t live close to the subway. You can also spend $30 per person on food in the stadium or you can choose to bring food from home (this is allowed in Yankee Stadium and most stadiums I’ve been to but I can’t speak for everywhere) or you can choose to eat before the game. The point is, yes games are not cheap but if you choose to spend anything close to $500 and you can’t afford to do so, you should consider where your money is going and look for cheaper options before you complain that it’s too expensive.
This is an argument I’ve made so many times but nobody ever listens. In MN, the field is right on the light rail line. Can park free at a park and ride lot, and the train ticket is like $3 per person. Upper deck tickets can be had for $25 or less. Maybe after some food and beverage you hit $200 for a game with four people. After that, everything is a choice. I can spend $200 just for me at a game, but I chose to get higher priced beers and more than just a hot dog.
Anyone in business knows the first numbers exchanged are designed to set a tone. The owners shot really low here and now the union, lacking leverage due to their previous agreement, needs to pull them up from these figures.
After some public bickering we’ll finally get something realistic in a few weeks.
Why the hell would the players association agree to cutting slot value by 50% or allow the league to cut bonus of underrated players 75%?
Seriously, MLB needs to pull their heads out of their rears because all they are doing at the moment is pissing the union off and the CBA is going up for negotiation soon.
No trimming,Trades in it and second network to carry coverage live to both days.
There is no justification for cutting bonuses for players who are drafted or undrafted. It’s just pure greed on the part of the billionaire owners.
The problem is that the MLBPA already sold the amateur players down the river in the last agreement when they agreed to let Manfted cut the draft to as few as five rounds and pay out bonuses of Maximum $ 20 K to undrafted players. These amateurs are unrepresented in this deal. Thiese bonuses are the only decent money they will see for years once they turn pro and start to work their way up through the minors.
Justification is each team has lost money this year. How much? We will have to wait and see but they’re losing money.
Teams have also been unable to conduct the draft process as usual. Prospects haven’t been playing, medicals are unknown, it’s a crap shoot this year in many ways. Teams want some protection for blindly investing in players they have little to no current information on. Also, many of these prospects aren’t currently keeping up with regiments to keep them in baseball shape which could result in many injuries when baseball activities do resume.
So what, a few billionaires take a hit and it’s justifiable to pass that on to kids coming out of school?
Sure the draft is a crapshoot. The draft is a crapshoot EVERY year. There are 1st round busts and 17th round stars, players that get hurt and guys drafted out of seemingly nowhere. Even with information it’s an inexact science.
This is just a low-key way to try and reduce salaries.
As Hose said, each team is losing money this year. If the same crap happens next year we all can sit back and say, “well, who cares if a few billionaires take a hit.”
At some point the money dries up. Income has to start coming in.
it would be understandable if the teams spent a lot on the draft but they don’t already. look at the total spending per year by each team. its not that much at all.
Let’s be real though, even if income declines, they’re talking about signing UDFA for 20k and 5k a pop, and cutting late round draftees who mostly secure small signing bonuses. How much will the franchise really feel that versus the player? Plus if a club doesn’t want to spend the money, don’t. Capping those things is unnecessary.
MLB has always refused to open their books. No one knows if they are losing money. Draft prospects have no protection. They have no representation. How do you know many of them are not in baseball shape?
The cap for undrafted players is to keep drafted players from not signing their deals
Basically 90 per cent of minor leaguers have no shot at making the major leagues and are only there to provide teammates and competition for the 10 per cent that do. It seems like this could easily be done by having three teams in each organization A, AA, AAA plus a facility at spring headquarters in Florida or Arizona to acclimate and develop the under 20’s, the international players. The rest of the players can get an education and play college ball or play out their youthful dreams in independent leagues around the country with the best of them scouted and signed to play in mlb organizations. NBA and nhl teams have one minor league affiliate. NFL has none. More high school players will go to college instead of chasing a mostly unrealistic dream which is a good thing. If good enough in college they will have their pro opportunity. Maybe teams should even stop drafting high school seniors altogether. Most wash out.
NHL also has East Coast Hockey.
NBA didn’t have them until recently and hockey has more than 1. They have quite a few actually
Minor league ball cultivates a lot of fans, though. And we move to bigger cities and support MLB franchises.
Those teams mean a lot to those small towns. I grew up going to minor league games.
You keep arguing about rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
The world is going to change…..
why is that rearranging deck chairs on the titanic? its a significant concern of a lot of people.
as someone who grew up on minor league ball I love going to games, as a bay area guy we try to make it down to at least a couple of SJ games a year in addition to going to SF games as well
I agree with most of what you suggest/stated. Although mgomrjsurf is right, NHL has AHL and ECHL. But they should look at a hockey model. Sure NHL has two affiliates. But there’s so many leagues in Europe, and also a few other leagues in North America that are not affiliated with the MLB. That’s how baseball should start to operate. The Economics just doesn’t make sense with having 6-7 minor league affiliates, allowing the lower levels to make under minimum wage. They should just get a regular job. Stop this 40 round draft, it’s nonsense.
The NFL has college teams as their minors…..
hip hip Jorge!
Baseball has colleges too! Are you not making a point at all?
Do I hear a resounding yes!?!!!
Cutting down the number of minor league teams isn’t the answer or good for the game. Do you realize how many stars might not have been? Also do you realize how many college grags are buried in student debt and can’t find employment? Chasing an “unrealistic dream” while making a modest salary is better than being forced into something that isn’t your passion, especially when you may just grab that brass ring.
MLB should not be forced to carry unprofitable farm teams, because it makes people feel good.As for Student Loan debt, that is not MLB’s fault. The student debt issue is because of greed ( and slick marketing) by the Universities, as well as stupidly by the Government. They basically can charge whatever they want, and offer worthless classes because of a guaranteed student loan system. Personally speaking, I could have went to Hofstra ( an expensive private school), but it would have meant a trainload of debt. Instead I went to SUNY Old Westbury which I could afford. That is an option, that is available for those who wish to choose it.
id they didnt want the minor league teams they didnt need to roster them in the first place. if it was about making money off of them alone many would have never existed to begin with.
When the minor league system was created, things were a lot different. For example: College baseball was basically a nothing sport. Today, you can go to a school like Stanford or Vanderbilt, get excellent coaching and of course a great education, and most of the tuition will be picked up. MLB does not need minor leagues to do the instructions to the degree they once did, nor do they need thousands of extra players to help develop hundreds of players.
Yes, you can get an education and training in college. You can also get injured before you ever see the pros, so not everyone wants to do that.
Plus you do need extra players to help develop the hundreds. Ronald Acuna Jr. for instance was an unheralded IFA, same as many IFAs. Most are 18 year old kids, maybe younger. He may have never gotten a chance without extra minor league teams to rise into a star. Even if he did, the road would’ve been harder against older competition.
You can always come up with exceptions like Acuna or Mike Piazza as a late round pick. But look at how many BUSTS you find in the draft. For example how many Yankee first round picks since Derek Jeter actually made the Major Leagues ( let alone became a star). I can think of Gerrit Cole ( and they did not sign him). That drafting record is worse then the Cleveland Browns drafting record.
Naturally you’re going to have more busts than hits. Prospect development isn’t easy. There’s a bit of luck to it sometimes, too. If you think of prospects as lotto tickets, the more you have, the better your chances to win. Cutting down the number of minor league teams is counterproductive to that. Anything that turns a talented player away from the game who’d make a paltry sum of money to begin with is a bad idea.
The MLBPA cares about amateur draftees now? LOL!
The draft needs to be fixed to get more people watching like the NFL. The question is how?
Why? How does that benefit the game?
You can’t fix the draft. Sure, you could let teams trade their picks (and I think teams should be allowed to), but there are two reasons the baseball draft will never rate as highly as the NBA or NFL drafts:
1. Draft picks in the NBA and NFL can step immediately into a job at the highest level, often into the starting lineup for the top guys. It’s extremely rare that a baseball draft pick is in the majors within even a year after being drafted. For high schoolers, it can be 4 years before they hit the majors. Hard to get all that excited about watching guys get drafted and then not seeing them play for your team for that long.
2. As of right now, only 3 #1 overall picks in basbeall have made it to the HoF, and one of those (Baines) is undeserving. 3 of those picks (of ones drafted in 2008 or before) never played an MLB game and 20 more never became All-Stars. Point is, the baseball draft is more of a crapshoot than the NBA or NFL drafts. Sure, there are Anthony Bennett’s and Ryan Leaf’s in other drafts, but baseball has far more of them. It doesn’t make the draft meaningless, but it does take away some of the meaning.
I agree with you 100%. I will add another other reason. 3:CName recognition: Most sports fans are aware of Joe Burrow ( even if they are not LSU ( or even SEC fans)), but very few can name the top players picked in the MLB Draft. The sad fact is MLB’s Draft is even behind hockey when it comes to the Draft.
College football and immediate impact is why people watch the NFL draft. There is absolutely nothing MLB can do to compete with that.
Yeah. I don’t see college baseball becoming a revenue sport anytime soon!
Would rather see 150 minor league teams (5 per franchise) rather than 120, but I understand it. MLB should have upgraded video equipment for the minor league affiliates to make the milb games that are streamed online better quality. I would watch a lot more minor league games just to watch prospects or if my favorite MLB team is pushing 90 losses every year. The online component could be a much greater revenue generator for the minor leagues, and this all comes down to money at the end of the day.
I disagree. If you are a baseball fan, you have packages where you can watch any team you like, even if yours is not playing. If the Yankees are playing an afternoon game, while I am at work, I can put on say Cubs versus Cardinals, instead of the Yankees Triple A Affiliate in Scranton. Just like if Penn State is not playing on a Saturday Night, I can always find a major Conference Game.
No bleep you can watch another MLB game. If you buy the MLB subscription. I’m talking MILB, not MLB. Follow along Yankee fan, I’ll explain again:
Say my MLB team sucks, and I want to watch the prospects, I can get an MILB subscription and watch games. One problem with those games is the equipment and technology which could use a boost from MLB. That could lead to more interest from baseball fans, and thus potential ad money with a boost in viewership. The MILB quality isn’t good depending on who you watch. People who love the Rays but struggle to get to games because of the park location could watch Wander Franco online as an option rather than Tampa.
Point is, maybe once in a while I want something different than MLB. Off days I can watch another game that’s picked up by my TV station that owns MLB rights. That is a given. No need to explain that to any baseball fan with a pulse.
MLB is hell bent on slashing the minor leagues. The current plan is not even as severe as some teams would like (Houston). They would trim the minors even further and have them spend most of their time training and not playing games. In theory, this would produce better talent quicker and at a lower cost. I say in theory because it has never been done this way. But it also ignores the fact that they will miss out on potential MLB talent. Also ignores the economic impact on the broader game and how minor league baseball promotes the game. Going this route could end up being penny wise and pound foolish.
So the current plan of slashing 42 teams could just be the first step.
Last I looked, there were six major independent leagues in the USA and Canada: American Association (13 teams), Atlantic League (8), Can-Am League (6), Frontier League (12), Pecos League (10) and the Pacific Association (4). I would expect (?) that cities who lose a MiLB affiliate would consider joining one of those leagues – or forming a new independent league of their own. And of course, players who are not drafted by MLB still have foreign leagues – Mexico, Japan, Korea, Australia, etc.
thank God they did. no reason to draft less players, especially given how little even the top guys get paid. then cutting UDFA saleries is an even more nefarious kick in the gut. its like they are purposely repelling young players from this game.
What? 90%+ of college players start in short A. High school players start in Rookie league. If you cut those but keep signing all the kids for $10k out of the Dominican, and other countries this will no longer be America’s pastime.
Why should MLB foot the bill to develop players for years when they can let universities do it for them? Fewer players will be needed going forward. Plenty of other avenues to pro ball available for those with the dream.
what about guys from other countries or wanting to come out from high school? what use is college to them?
Why should publicly funded colleges foot the bill for MLB?
I don’t really understand why the need for such massively drastic changes to the draft this year. I understand teams are trying to save $ everywhere they can but going from 40 rounds to literally 5 or 10 seems kind of extreme. Like I just feel like there are too many solid guys taken in rounds 10-20 (also tons of duds but that’s how things go in the draft) to have all those players who would otherwise be playing pro baseball not get that chance! I guess having the extra year of college as an option and stuff will help out the non-drafted players… But idk it just seems weird to me that they’d cut the draft so significantly just because of the virus — like a draft is still just a draft.
Limiting the draft to 5 or 10 rounds is perhaps the most asinine idea Manfred has had to date. It’s almost as if he is trying to destroy the game. MLB is going to miss out on a lot of great players. Look at the history of late draft picks and how many names would’ve missed the cut.
mlb.com/news/best-late-round-picks-in-draft-histor…
This is a total bag job by MLB. Why have the draft at all if you are going to change the rules so much? No ‘real’ prospect is going to sign for a $20K or $5K bonus. They are going to head to juCo, college or go back to college. This includes college seniors who will be granted an extra year of eligibility based on recent NCAA choices. Any agent worth a damn will tell their clients not sign unless they are a Top 5 round pick. I’m okay with locking in slot values for rounds 6-10 but NOT reducing the slot values by 50% too. Keep in mind that MLB has already decided to pay 2021 signing bonuses for draftees over 3 years (20% year 1, then 40/40) so they are already protected from a cash flow perspective. Now they are just being predatory by trying to take away bonus money from these kids, with which many will need to live off of for the next 4-5 years while they get paid below minimum wage in the minors. This draft is going to be a disaster for MLB and I really hope the kids are smart enough to stay completely away from it and wait until next year when things are back to ‘normal’.
It’s dirty, but I think that’s their plan. If they push these guys into college they’d suppress salaries through restrictions and competition the next 2-3 years probably. They can leverage prospect A against prospect B by drafting who’ll take the smaller signing bonus.
Manfred is a joke