Since next year’s amateur draft will be the 50th June draft, Baseball America’s John Manuel thinks MLB should use the milestone to make changes to the draft’s structure. Manuel’s suggestions include moving the draft to All-Star week, shortening it to 20 rounds and implementing a standardized pre-draft physical for every player that would help avoid another Brady Aiken situation. Testing would take place during “a medical combine” that would get official gauges on other measurable physical skills and baseball abilities.
Here are some notes from around the sport…
- The Astros will have a hard time finding 40-man roster spots for all of their promising Rule 5 draft-eligible prospects, Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper writes. One interesting facet of the Jarred Cosart trade with the Marlins, Cooper notes, was that Houston freed up two extra 40-man roster spaces for use this winter.
- The perception that Jon Lester and the Red Sox have some sort of tacit agreement that the southpaw will re-sign with the team this winter is “amusing,” ESPN’s Buster Olney writes in his latest Insider-only column. Such an agreement would require a lot of trust between both sides, and after the way the Sox approached negotiations with their former ace, “the Lester-Red Sox relationship degraded into a business transaction.” This doesn’t necessarily mean Lester won’t re-sign, Olney notes, just that Boston will need to greatly increase their contract offer in the offseason.
- Also from Olney’s column, he lists nine starters who the Red Sox could pursue in trades this winter since the free agent pitching options (and/or prices) may not be to Boston’s liking.
- When the Nationals were trying to acquire a reliever before the deadline, several teams asked for outfield Steven Souza in return, Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post reports. Souza, who received his second big league call-up today, has posted huge numbers in each of his last three minor league seasons, including a .354/.435/.601 slash line with 18 homers and 24 steals (of 31 chances) in 386 PA for Triple-A Syracuse this year.
Souza Souza!
I hear he’s great in March
Would All Star week drafts and 20 rounds make administering Rookie Level leagues a nightmare? Teams and amateur players past round 20would have to scurry to weigh offers and get players signed
Great point. It would be 100x worse than the NFL’s undrafted free agent model. This could force teams to draft players with signability issues just to ensure that they are the only team negotiating with the player.
Then when that played decides to go to college, the team will have missed out on a very important draft slot. That and it could throw the competitive balance totally out of whack. Players would gladly sign with the Yankees over Tampa Bay for example. Would MLB put spending limits on how much can be offered to these players?
I can understand the shift of a pre or post college world series draft…but if its held over another month.. it puts amateur players at risk of injury playing meaningless summer ball. The NFL draft occurs off season
I can understand the shift of a pre or post college world series draft…but if its held over another month.. it puts amateur players at risk of injury playing meaningless summer ball. The NFL draft occurs off season
interesting situation the astros find themselves in, Rule 5 players have to been in professional ball for either 4 or 5 years, depending on how old they were when they got drafted. If the Astros have that many eligible players not on their 40 man roster, you would have to ask why? It’s not like they stock up on costly vets. Being buried in the Astros system might really mean being buried