Major League Baseball is pressing a plan to implement an international draft in the near future, Baseball America’s Ben Badler reports. With ownership behind the initiative, says Badler, it’s possible that the league could attempt to institute such a system as soon as the 2020 international signing season.
That general attempt has long been anticipated. What’s most notable about the report, which arises in the wake of a league-run session with teams’ international staff members, are some of the potential particulars. The changes, if implemented, would represent a significant further tightening of an already closely controlled labor-intake system.
According to Badler, the initial structure under consideration features “hard slot value[s]” that would leave no room for negotiation for incoming players. In other words, in addition to losing their ability to select which organization would best nurture and care for a 16-year-old while providing the best long-term opportunity, players and their families would be stripped of the chance to negotiate a larger bonus than the system dictates.
The proposal also includes a simple rotation system for assigning top draft choices to teams. That’d make for quite a different approach from the domestic amateur draft, in which the order is tethered directly to MLB team performance. A rotating approach would largely preserve the status quo, in which spending pools aren’t connected to MLB-level outcomes; it’s unclear whether there would continue to be any connection to competitive balance (recipients currently get more pool money) or free-agent outcomes (there’s a pool hit for non-revenue sharing teams that sign a player who declined a qualifying offer).
MLB has already succeeded in shaving something like a quarter of its international expenditures by imposing hard caps on amateur spending. Though many players signing under the regime are teenagers, the rules also extend to cover those who haven’t yet turned 25 and who possess less than six seasons playing in a foreign professional league. (That’s why the immensely talented Shohei Ohtani signed for peanuts.)
It’s impossible not to connect the question of the international draft to the still-building labor battle between MLB and the MLB Players Association. First and foremost, the international intake system is subject to bargaining — just as it was when the union acceded to the hard-cap system. More broadly, there’s an obvious connection between amateur signing bonuses and early-MLB extensions — the recent run of which has had a huge (albeit still not fully known) impact on the ability of MLB players as a whole to command future free-agent earnings.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the MLBPA responds to this initiative. Chief Tony Clark hinted recently at a new stance on the amateur side, though it’s still not clear whether the union will be able to enunciate an encompassing vision to compete with the league’s — or, at least, use this topic to pry other, worthwhile concessions. Mid-CBA negotiations are now in process; the international question will no doubt feature significantly.
Badler notes that members of the international intake apparatus — trainers on the player side and scouts on the team side — are increasingly “split” in their views on the draft after a history of general opposition. That won’t dictate the players’ position by any stretch, but it’s a notable shift from a set of important stakeholders.
There are numerous considerations to be accounted for here beyond bonuses. The international signing system has long featured nefarious, sometimes dangerous, situations involving young and often vulnerable players. While there are indications that some of the most concerning elements have improved in recent years, it’s still plenty concerning that teams are lining up advance deals with extremely youthful players who are not yet eligible to sign. There’s still ample potential for harm. And while teams have increasingly seen the value in investing in education and health initiatives for their amateur players, there’s no common standard and no firm support system for those that aren’t chosen to continue advancing as professional ballplayers. It may be hoped that, if the league is successfully able to tighten control through a draft, it also focuses serious energy and resources to creating a truly just overall program for players that are eligible for selection.
if such a thing is only for the 16 year olds, that’s fine, but the older international free agents should not be subject to these rules. saying a player is an “amateur” until they are 25 is absurd. Ohtani had 5 pro seasons under his belt before he signed as an “amateur free agent,” for example.
Agreed! Good compromise.
Wasn’t Ohtani part of the posting system ???
They have their own rules to follow.
The age for international draft eligible players should be lowered and anybody over the set age become international free agents.
Both rules regimes applied. His Japanese team got the max $20MM. He got $2MM and change.
This is a serious question, how does his pro leagues compare to NCAA baseball?
Many consider the Nippon League to be between AAA and MLB. I would say a top NCAA program is probably more in line with an A ball team and overall I would guess NCAA D1 is probably similar to rookie level.
The best NCAA programs have 4-5 players on the roster that will eventually be a pro. So the very best D1 programs would probably not compete well against even a Low A professional team.
The best NCAA teams would get obliterated by a low A baseball team. The Rookie level teams would be the closest comparison considering those guys are right out of college or high school. But, again they are the best of the best.
If we’re talking the best NCAA teams, I’m not sure I agree about being obliterated by a low A team. Over a full season, the overall team depth on an A ball team would probably allow them to pull ahead, but in a single game or even in a series the top programs would be able to compete, especially considering the talent at the top.
I pulled up Vanderbilt’s drafted players over the past 10 years. They had 79 players drafted over that time, including 10 1st rounders, 12 in rounds 2-3 and 5 in the 4-5 rounds. With players having to stay at school for 3 years, that means at any given time Vanderbilt’s team has 24 drafted players, 3 1st rounders, 3-4 2nd/3nd and 1-2 4th/5th round draftees. That is a lot of talent.
For comparison, I pulled up the roster for the 2018 Hudson Valley Renegades, who had the best record in the low-A NYP league last season. That team didn’t have any players taken in the 1st round. They had 4 players drafted in the 2nd round, 1 from the 3rd and 1 in the 4th. The majority of players were drafted in rounds 10-25.
You’re underestimating how much talent is at these top schools and their rosters have much more talent than 4-5 pro players.
Over the past 10 years, Vanderbilt has had 79 players drafted, UF had had 76, ASU and TCU have each had 66, OSU has had 61, UVA 57, UNC 53. With players staying for 3 years, that means on average these top programs have 17-24 players on their rosters who will be drafted and mostly likely turn pro. Vanderbilt and UF have each had 10 1st rounders drafted, so on average they have 3 first rounders on each roster.
21 should be the cutoff age
I remember there being reports Vlad Jr had agreed to deal before he was eligible to sign, and yet MLB just looked the other way
as they say, its with just about every player. in my mind, i dont care if someone guarentees me 100K dollars before or after I turn 16. has the league asked the players and their families what they think about it? i doubt it.
There’s nothing wrong with a verbal agreement to sign before you’re eligible to actually sign. It happens all the time. That’s how the international signings work, at least with the top tier talent.
Unless your the Cardinals or Braves you get no punishments on anything underhanded you do.
Red Sox
I think it’s more likely that those teams had some egregious infractions, rather than MLB just haphazardly deciding to pick on the Cardinals and Braves.
Its also how scholarships to play in NCAA work.
It is widely acknowledged to be common practice for many of the “July 2” signees.
You mean all those contracts signed on July 2 weren’t actually completely negotiated, first contact to signature, on July 2?
Who knew?
Just my luck… Ohtani’s peanuts are more valuable than mine…
They are definitely big-league peanuts.
Ohtani provides more value than you do, so his peanuts are bigger.
Would it not work to have international players be a part of the amateur draft, like the NBA?
the framework would be difficult to set up. other sports have leagues in other countries they can scout and draft players from. they could get burried in the regular draft.
It would make it a lot more fun.
I don’t care how they get there but an International Draft needs to happen. Basketball & Hockey the 2 other sports that rely on International players both have it.
NBA has 2 rounds and the players go directly to the team that drafted them and play immediately. Its a different animal.
In the NHL the foreign players are from relatively wealthy nations and play in junior hockey leagues from the time they can walk and are well educated.
In baseball the majority of foreign players come from 3rd world nations. 40% of them live in poverty. Many times the only secondary education they get is in the baseball academies set up by the buscones because they drop out of school at 12-13 in an attempt to get accepted into a MLB academy when they turn 15.5 and in the DR school is only required through the 8th grade.
More than 5% of all the boys in the DR are in one of those buscone run “feeder” programs. An estimate 50,000-80,000 boys.
There are no high school teams. There is not much in the way of Little Leagues. There are no junior leagues. No travel teams. No Perfect Game or Area Code Games like kids have here in the USA.
Someone, the buscones, has to invest money and time to develop these players once they reach their teens there would be no players to draft. No one would even know those kids exist.
If they continue to lower the amount of money available to the players by instituting an International Draft, those buscones have no incentive to invest the money up front, there will be few international players to draft.
Its a different animal than in the USA. MLB cannot apply rules to a system with conditions that are vastly different than the ones that kids are blessed with in the US.
a lot of people either don’t realize, or refuse to realize, that in places like the caribbean these players have no development system past the little league level if you take away the ‘buscone’ system away
in basketball and hockey you have many, many countries with junior and professional leagues that give those players opportunity beyond american professional leagues
you try and force those systems onto MLB, and the international pipeline just dies.
And for what, to save some already fantastically rich people some money? It won’t effect ‘competitive balances’, since a lot of ‘small market’ teams are already very actively in the IFA market
It’s definitely past time. The major league draft should be combined with a international draft. Manfred has pushed thru all sorts of meh stuff. This is actually something that should have happened decades ago.
the problem is the international players can get burried, at leaet at first. as much as these teams will pay top dollar to get these lottery tickets, i doubt most would take them over players with more actual game experience. (college and high school) the MLB will need to create leagues in the countries in question to truely get the players on the map then, and that hurts players from developing baseball countries.
They already have academy’s in the Dominican where they receive elite training. These foreign countries also have winter leagues. There needs to be an international draft yesterday.
At least a rotating system doesn’t support tanking and allows trading of picks. This may also open the door of trading regular draft picks as well if it goes smoothly.
Regular draft should follow this model, along with getting rid of competitive balance picks.
I’m not as big a fan of the Yankees, Dodgers and Red Sox as you seem to be.
“The proposal also includes a simple rotation system for assigning top draft choices to teams. That’d make for quite a different approach from the domestic amateur draft, in which the order is tethered directly to MLB team performance.”
So, the Yankees could be coming off a 110 win WS title season and still get the top pick in the draft?
and it’s a 1/30 chance for each team regardless of the situation. or they could be coming of a 110 win season and get a another Dermis Garcia. hardly a broken system.
They could get the last pick after coming off a 10 win season
You know the Yankees will get a top pick every year. MLB will make sure of that.
In truth, Josh, this system would lessen the chances of the Yankees, and other teams with tight ties to the Buscones from signing the top talents. The current system, admittadly because of their reputation and relationships, gives the Yankees a much higher chance of nabbing a top 5 talent.
No, that’s correct. Look at Jason Dominguez.
But, replacing a really really flawed system with a really flawed system, while admittedly an improvement, shouldn’t be the goal.
As I point out below, the NHL has all of the world’s players in one draft, it can be done. Imagine how different the NHL would be if Crosby, Kane, Toews, etc. had to be drafted, but Ovechkin, Malkin, Kucherov, etc. could just sign with the highest bidder with no salary cap. It would be a Leaf and Ranger fan’s dream, but….
Yep. Who knows. If it sets up correctly a team like the Pirates or Royals could have 25-30 years before they get the top international prospect while the Yankees or Dodgers could get say an amateur like Ohtani without paying any type of premium.
It would be inexcusable for the players to be complicit in making their replacements cheaper to acquire yet again without getting a massive concession in return.
Being such a failure, it’s amazing that Tony Clark is still running the Players Association.
Yes the time has come for an international draft. Personally, I would just make it one draft, and require the players be at least 18 years old before registering for the draft. But I would also combine that with a reasonable living wage for minor league players. Expand the draft pool monies by essentially combining the normal draft pool money with the current international pool monies and expand that to the first 15 rounds instead of 10. Get rid of competitive balance picks and compensation picks for losing a free agent. Allow picks to be traded. Foreign professional players would not be subjected to the draft.
That is how I would do it, but there are other reasonable ways to do this. The time has come for an international draft.
The problem with this idea is many of the players who might otherwise become professionals in foreign leagues would be drafted by MLB teams. It’s easy for a fan of MLB or an MLB team owner to say that the time has come for an international draft, but the owners and fans of teams outside of MLB probably aren’t going to see it that way.
The International draft should be a complete lottery for picks 1-30 for the 1st round and then for the rounds after go by worst record. Also allow trading of international draft picks.
Interesting that the union can negotiate away the earnings of people who aren’t members but somehow they are helpless when it comes to improving minor league salaries.
Of course, I’m not sure there is any incentive for any country to agree to an international draft. The impetus seems to be, “We want to pay these guys less,” which sounds like a tough sell.
Ugh. I can see where this is headed. They’re gonna negotiate a deal that gives declining 30+ year olds even bigger free agent contracts, at the expense of young foreign talent. Because young players aren’t represented at the negotiating table. The veterans control the PA, and they only care about their own wallets.
They’re gonna get rid of the qualifying offer (because $18M is not enough for one year, when you’re a 2-3 WAR 32 year old who’s not worth losing a draft pick over), and agree to severe limits on bonuses to poor kids who’s entire life is baseball.
Exactly.
“It may be hoped that, if the league is successfully able to tighten control through a draft, it also focuses serious energy and resources to creating a truly just overall program for players that are eligible for selection.:” So, we’re supposed to think the league needs a draft in order to help out the players? The league can add rules & a system to protect kids, without a draft.
Rich employers (teams) just want to pay their employees far less money than they are worth, with no choice on where to work. Owners make crazy amounts of money on their teams, via yearly profit or increase in team value. This is about greed.
The NHL has figured out a way to get players from the US, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Slovakia, Czech Rebublic, Britain, France, Italy, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany, Switzerland and more into ONE SINGLE draft.
It’s unclear why MLB can’t figure out how to do the same.
16 is just too young.
I think an all in one draft is the best solution. The only way a player can get onto a team is if they are drafted. None of this undrafted free agency stuff…if you go undrafted, then wait til next draft or enter college or play abroad. Once the player has been drafted, then they are able to be traded. No wait needed.
The draft goes on forever anyway. These international kids will bump those high school kids onto college teams.
Would reduce the corruption and baseball has a huge problem on the horizon with the Feds looking into it.
Either everyone’s in the draft or no draft. Today we have the capability to include the international players plus it brings an element of strategy for each baseball club trying to decide on a high school player, college player or option 3.
Doing this might entice more high school players to college if they slip down the draft due to more competition. Who knows. The draft would become even more intriguing.
As far as the good of the game, I’m all for it. But owners are trying to save even more money.
To heck with signing bonus limits, reduce the signing deadline, and one year after the third time drafted, he’s declared a free agent.
One benefit to the owners of an International Draft in purely economic terms is how it will help them externalize some risk with regard to the development of international talent.
I’m certain that teams would prefer spending the same or even a little more money on a smaller number of polished international prospects that paid their own way than continue funding academies full of many younger and significantly more raw prospects.
Borderline academy prospects that don’t ever make it to the U.S. or only come stateside for a season or two of minor-league ball will miss out. Though not necessarily the responsibility of MLB, those borderline players as a group benefit significantly from academy and low-level MiLB participation.
Wow. MLB is going to fix the problems it seems to have ongoing with the Players Union by enforcing “no choice” on the players side. Dangerous game to give all of the North American draftees multiple avenues on how to proceed with their careers, but ignore South American players on choice at all towards any open market. You go here, play for this much money and if you dont like it, you dont play here. Sounds like a strong arm.
So I imagine that MLB is going to do a Signing Bonus on the International Players coming in right. The player taken 1st in the draft should be looking at a signing bonus close to what Adley Rutschman got this year right, say $8 million?
If this is actually the first draft of the Draft for all International players then I think Major League Baseball is at odds on what it was ment to be and what it is now.
I have often wondered why they don’t just do an MLB draft that has international players eligible. This could also get rid of some of the shady dealings going on in Latin America.
Since the Braves are banned or limited in the upcoming international free agent market, how would a draft affect though limitations?
I disagree with what I feel is the majority sentiment about the hard slot on the International Draft proposal if an international draft is created.
It’s not perfect, but the reverse is equally bad when you think about the conditions international prospects may come from. Ever take a look at a college senior’s signing bonus in the domestic amateur draft? Peanuts. WAY under slot in many cases. Teams use their leverage to reallocate draft money from college seniors and others with less leverage to the very top prospects who they’re willing to pay over-slot to sign.
A flexible slot system would be really susceptible to corruption and manipulation in my opinion. I think it would almost certainly result in more desperate prospects (really poor or less elite) taking low-ball offers from teams as the teams seek to reallocate money to higher end prospects or prospects whose families don’t need the money as badly.
If college baseball were like football and basketball and there was way more money in it than now, they could probably welcome plenty of international players into the college baseball ranks. Then they would have a whole new set of other problems to deal with but at least they could then include those players into the draft. It’s not like big money college sports has anything to do with academics or quality treatment of athletes. Perfect fit. so encourage big time gambling on college baseball, get big network contracts, get filthy rich alumni on board with their shenanigans, and it’s all better now. What a mess.
I’m not a fan, this just encourages more tanking from teams. Also, this is just the owners trying to pay less. So the team with the worst record gets to pick first in both draft? All thier ideas is to lower salaries from top to bottom.
I hope that whatever they decide on, they implement it quickly and screw over the teams that already have deals in place with underage players. It’s clearly MLB’s fault for openly allowing this to go on, but I’d find it pretty funny.
Seems like an arbitrary position. Why is it so bad for teams to have “underage” players under contract? High school drafts often feature 17 year olds who are graduating and close to age 18. It’s not like the scouting started at age 17, either. Players are scouted as young as 14-ish.
In foreign countries with dramatically poorer living conditions, the scouting starts around the same point, but the families rarely have access to the kinds of coaching, facilities or equipment necessary to help the player excel.
MLB rules allow the signing of international players so long as that player turns 17 before the end of their first season. So international players can be a whole 1 year younger than the domestic amateur draft, and there is some merit to allowing the extra year. I tend to agree the limits should be the same as domestic limits, though.
Could you imagine if the only place that could work in your small town restricted your ability negotiate based on your skills? These rules are crazy and if MLB didnt have the monopolistic exemption they would never be happening.
So after years of this idea having no traction outside of the US because all it does is harm the earnings potential of foreign prospects, MLB decides the best way to convince the rest of the world this is a good idea is by putting a hard cap on their earnings potential…
color me skeptical that this attempt is even dead on arrival… it was dead before it was shipped
You’d rather MLB teams have a monopoly on a player’s rights and be allowed to low-ball signing bonuses to less elite prospects who will be desperate for any significant bonus because of their family finances?
Of course, it will mean teams will have more money to reallocate from the poor and desperate to the elite prospects.
that’s an entirely pointless question based on things never mentioned in what you’re responding to
the baseball draft system is becoming increasingly broken for everyone involved since it only exists to benefit those who least need the benefits of it. Why on earth would any sane nation subject their citizens to it if they don’t have to?
and they don’t, ‘cuz MLB only has the authority these other nations allow it to have
Well, there’s already a hard cap on their pool. This just spreads that money around more evenly. Which is not a true capitalist ideal. But, if no dollars are sucked out of the equation it doesn’t give international prospects any less dollars as a whole. Not having the freedom to pick your club would be a bigger sticking point in my estimation.
eh, capitalism isn’t perfect anyway. putting all the power in the hands of those with the money tends to end badly more often than not. Especially when that power is being used to just amass more wealth and power…
i’m okay with ‘mostly capitalist’
Of course the owners want an international draft. They want to keep even more of the record amount of money they are making right now, instead of passing it along to the players that make it possible.
Since the MLB players will likely strike after 2021 if they are not paid more, they have to take that money from other players that are not part of the MLBPA yet. That means amateurs and foreign players.
They already cut the money going into international market by more than 75%. An international draft would cut that an additional 50%. Its greed, plain and simple.
They spent 25% less, not 75% less.
Yes, MLB owners are absolutely going to try to leverage this into cost savings to pocket. As owners, they’re seeking to make money. They are going to negotiate towards that end as you’d expect. Hopefully, the MLBPA ensures things are fair to players this time.
Because of hard caps, in 2019 MLB will spend less than 8% of the money they spent on international players in 2016.
One team, the San Diego Padres, spent more on international players in 2016 than all of MLB will spend in 2019.
I was being generous in saying 25%.
The MLBPA is forbidden by law to even broach the subject because those international players are not part of the union until they are in the majors.
In baseball the majority of foreign players come from 3rd world nations. In the DR 40% of them live in poverty. In Venezuela the vast majority of them live in poverty.
There are no high school teams. There is not much in the way of Little Leagues. There are no junior leagues. No travel teams. No Perfect Game or Area Code Games like kids have here in the USA. None of the systems of developing players that are available to all kids in the USA.
Many times the only secondary education they get is in the baseball camps set up by the buscones because they drop out of school at 12-13 in an attempt to get accepted into a MLB academy when they turn 15.5. In the DR school is only required through the 8th grade and there is no requirement in Venezuela that I know of.
More than 5% of all the boys in the DR are in one of those buscone run “feeder” programs trying to get kids into the MLB academies. An estimate 50,000-80,000 boys. That is about the same percentage of kids that are in Little League baseball in the US.
Someone, the buscones, has to invest money and time to develop these players once they reach their teens there would be no players to draft. No one would even know those kids exist.
If they continue to lower the amount of money available to the players by instituting an International Draft, those buscones have no incentive to invest the money up front, there will be few international players to draft.
Its a different animal than in the USA. MLB cannot apply rules to a system with conditions that are vastly different than the ones that kids are blessed with in the US.