2020 Amateur Draft

MLBPA Rejects MLB’s 2020 Draft Proposal

By Connor Byrne | April 30, 2020 at 10:48pm CDT

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.

Latest On 2020 MLB Draft

By Connor Byrne | April 28, 2020 at 6:44pm CDT

Pushing the draft back to July because of the coronavirus has been on the table since March, but it appears the event will take place in its typical month after all. Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports that the draft is still slated to occur June 10 – the date it was supposed to start in the first place – though it will be held virtually. Before the pandemic reared its ugly head, Omaha had been scheduled to host it from June 10-12.

[RELATED: Amateur Draft Pool Allocations]

The fact that the draft will happen virtually will be just one of the unusual aspects of this year’s event (notably, the National Football League just completed its own virtual draft last weekend). Normally 40 rounds, MLB’s draft will last just five or 10 this summer, as Craig Mish of SportsGrid tweets. Major League Baseball and the MLBPA signed off on a truncated version in the agreement they reached a month ago.

A shortened draft will obviously have a significant effect on a large number of amateur players. For instance, some high schoolers may now be more inclined to play college baseball next season, while certain college juniors who might have entered a normal draft could stay in school for another year and try their luck in 2021. There will also be a deeper pool than ever of undrafted talent.

As part of their deal, the league and the union limited undrafted players’ signing bonuses to a maximum of $20K. Meanwhile, drafted players’ up-front money will be capped at $100K in 2020, with the rest to be distributed in two equal installments from 2021-22.

Quick Hits: Hamilton, Feierabend, Draft, Lannan

By Mark Polishuk | April 26, 2020 at 8:13am CDT

The Major League career of former first baseman/outfielder Mark Hamilton consisted of 47 games with the Cardinals in 2010-11, a brief stint that netted Hamilton a World Series ring for his role in the Cards’ 2011 championship squad. After being released by the Braves in July 2014, Hamilton stuck to his vow to go to medical school if he wasn’t a big league regular by his 30th birthday, and ESPN.com’s Alden Gonzalez writes that Hamilton is set to officially begin his medical career in June at two New York hospitals “at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.” Though Hamilton is trained in interventional radiology, the early days of his six-year residency program will inevitably be focused on helping treat coronavirus patients. While the pandemic has “been very eye-opening,” Hamilton said, “I wanted to go into medicine because I really enjoyed caring for people. I enjoy being able to help others when they’re in their darkest hour, when they need somebody to both support them from a medical side and an emotional side. And I’m definitely going to be able to do that in my first year.”

Some more from around baseball…

Left-hander Ryan Feierabend signed with the Uni-President Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League during the offseason, so Feierabend his fellow CPBL peers have gotten their season underway in Taiwan while the rest of the baseball world is still on pause, The Toronto Star’s Gregor Chisholm writes. Since Taiwan quickly enacted measures against COVID-19, the outbreak has been severely limited on the island, thus allowing for businesses, schools, and other larger public gatherings to continue to operate, albeit under safety restrictions. CPBL games, for instance, are being played without fans in attendance. Given how matters seem to be somewhat under control in Taiwan, Feierabend said he “would feel more comfortable” if his wife and children were in Taiwan rather than in the United States, both for safety reasons and simply so the family could be together. “It’s a sacrifice being away…Having to deal with that while the pandemic is going on, it’s definitely stressful,” Feierabend said, praising his wife Sarah for being “the rock of our family.”
Arizona State’s Spencer Torkelson would be the first pick of this year’s amateur draft if MLB.com’s Jim Callis held the reins in the Tigers’ front office. (Detroit has the first overall selection.) Callis is a fan of Torkelson’s power potential, calling him “one of the biggest impact college bats in recent years” and saying he might deliver seasons in the range of 35 homers and a .280 average on a regular basis in the majors. Vanderbilt outfielder/third baseman Austin Martin is a close second for Callis, and unsurprisingly, Torkelson and Martin also occupy the top two spots on MLB Pipeline’s list of the top 150 draft prospects.
The Blue Jays have made mental performance a major aspect of their player development system at both the Major League and minor league levels, with eight-year MLB veteran John Lannan was hired as the newest member of the six-person mental performance department this past January. As The Athletic’s John Lott (subscription required) writes, Lannan went back to school to study sports psychology after retiring in August 2017, and realized the subject matter was instantly relatable to the modern player. “Once I was going into all these deep dives into sports psychology, it just brought to mind a lot of situations throughout my career, where it started to make sense why I might have felt the way I felt and what I could have probably done about it if I’d known more about the subject,” Lannan said. Lott outlines the Jays front office’s philosophy about the benefits of mental performance, and how the department’s role has now evolved with players stuck at home waiting out the pandemic.

Quick Hits: Shapiro, Blue Jays, Ryu, Draft, Payrolls

By Mark Polishuk | April 12, 2020 at 10:31pm CDT

It was on this day in 1916 that one of the biggest trades in early baseball history was finalized, as the Indians acquired superstar center fielder Tris Speaker from the Red Sox for right-hander “Sad” Sam Jones, minor leaguer Fred Thomas, and $55K in cash considerations. A salary dispute prompted the move, as the Sox wanted Speaker to take a pay cut following something of a down year (.322/.416/411 over 653 PA) by his huge standards in 1915. While the two teams agreed to the swap a few days prior to April 12, it wasn’t officially completed until Speaker received a reported $10K bonus to agree to play for Cleveland, a bonus Speaker demanded be personally paid by Red Sox owner Joseph Lannin.

While the Sox were criticized for the trade, they weren’t exactly hurt in the short term, as Boston went on to win the World Series in both 1916 and 1918 — Jones posting a 2.25 ERA in the latter season to play a big role in the championship run. Speaker, meanwhile, had plenty of great baseball left in him, as he hit .354/.444/.520 over 6634 plate appearances with the Tribe from 1916-26, and also served as Cleveland’s manager for the last eight of those seasons. Speaker’s time with the Indians was highlighted by a World Series victory in 1920, the first title in franchise history.

Some notes from around the modern baseball world…

Though the Blue Jays loaded up on arms this offseason, team president/CEO Mark Shapiro still feels “pitching, pitching and more pitching” is his club’s biggest need. In a Q&A conversation with The Athletic’s Jim Bowden (subscription required), Shapiro noted that Toronto’s splashy $80MM signing of Hyun-Jin Ryu was partially based on that need, since “we have more position players than pitchers that are major-league ready to impact and we needed more balance.” Another factor, however, was the internal confidence amongst the Jays’ current core roster “that they are closer to winning than people think.” This is one of many topics addressed during the interview, as Shapiro also discussed issues as rule changes, how baseball could adapt to a shortened season, and how he is coping with trying to run an organization with everyone staying at home.
Also of note was Shapiro’s mention that “more of a traditional center fielder” was the Blue Jays’ second-biggest need, though “we have lots of outfielders and we would like to give them an opportunity before adding to that mix.” Randal Grichuk is slated for the bulk of center field duty, though Teoscar Hernandez, Derek Fisher, Anthony Alford, and perhaps even Cavan Biggio could all get some time up the middle. While Grichuk is mostly thought of as a right fielder, he has actually amassed almost as many innings in center (1988 1/3) as he has in right (2196 2/3) over his MLB career, though defensive metrics are somewhat split on which is his better position. UZR/150 and Statcast’s Outs Above Average favor Grichuk’s work in right field, while the Defensive Runs Saved metric prefers his glovework in center field.
With this year’s amateur draft slated for only between 5-10 rounds, many top high school prospects could opt to attend college or junior college, while some college seniors could take their renewed year of NCAA eligibility and instead enter the 2021 draft. Other youngsters, however, will opt to begin their pro careers, which MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo notes will likely lead to a huge free agent market of available amateur talent. Teams can’t spend more than $20K to sign any undrafted amateur, so a host of other factors could impact whether or not a player chooses one particular team over others offering the same dollar figure, as executives, agents, and players tell Cotillo. These factors range from the relationship between a team’s scout and the player, a player choosing a team close to his hometown and family, or perhaps even a club strategically drafting one prospect in order to draft another. As one scouting director put it, “If we draft a kid in the fourth round, do we have a better shot at signing his buddy?“
“Team officials and player agents are bracing for what they expect to be a dramatic shift in the financial landscape if the sport is shut down for the season,” ESPN.com’s Buster Olney writes (subscription required), which could mean particular concern for teams with major long-term salary commitments on their books. Clubs like the Angels, Padres, and Rockies are in this camp, while teams with less money committed beyond the next season or two — such as the Giants, Rangers, Mariners, or Dodgers — are in a bit better position. Of course, the coming Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations are “the industry X factor” in all financial forecasts.

Quick Hits: Verlander, Draft Scouting, Moore

By Mark Polishuk | April 4, 2020 at 9:39pm CDT

Justin Verlander is the latest player to contribute towards the COVID-19 relief effort, as the Astros ace and his wife Kate Upton announced (via Twitter) that Verlander’s weekly paycheck will be donated to a different organization every week. “We’ll also be highlighting the organization that we choose so that that everyone can see the amazing work they’re doing right now,” Upton said. As per the terms of the recent agreement between the MLB Players Association and Major League Baseball, Verlander is part of the group of players (who have reached salary arbitration or are on guaranteed contracts) that will receive roughly $5K per day in both April and May. Now, all of the money Verlander receives from those payments will go to a variety of worthy causes.

Some more from around the baseball world…

Major League scouts will soon be permitted to contact prospects for the 2020 draft and the 2020-21 international signing period (as well as the prospects’ families and advisers) beginning next week, CBS Sports’ R.J. Anderson writes. MLB halted all scouting activities as part of the league-wide shutdown in March, and any sort of in-person workouts or meetings are still banned. ESPN.com’s Kiley McDaniel reports that teams are also not permitted to view any video footage of such workout sessions that took place after March 27. That said, teams can gather data and video on players (from third parties or from the prospects’ representatives) prior to that date, and also contact the prospects’ teams by phone, e-mail, or any other type of indirect method. With some rough plans now in place for a shortened 2020 draft, teams will now have some avenues to gain fresher information on players they might wish to select. The amateur draft will now take place in July, while the next international signing period (originally scheduled to open on July 2) could be pushed back as far as January.
The 2020 season was already going to be a new experience for Matt Moore after the left-hander signed with Nippon Professional Baseball’s SoftBank Hawks, though the coronavirus pandemic has created an extra layer of unexpected adversity. Moore talks to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal about the differences and similarities between playing and living in Japan as opposed to the majors, his offseason courtship from SoftBank that included a private workout for the team, and how playing for the Hawks marks something of a return. Moore spent four years living in Japan as a child when his father was transferred to a U.S. Air Force base in Okinawa.

2020 Amateur Draft Pool Allocations

By Connor Byrne | April 2, 2020 at 11:33pm CDT

After easily finishing with Major League Baseball’s worst record (47-114) in 2019, the Tigers are set to pick first in this upcoming summer’s draft. The Orioles – owners of the No. 1 pick a year ago – will make the second choice, but they have the most money available to sign their selections, as Jim Callis of MLB.com details. On the opposite end of the spectrum, after losing their first- and second-round picks as a result of a sign-stealing scandal, the Astros have the least cash at their disposal.

This is shaping up to be a rather unusual and far shorter draft because of the coronavirus pandemic. The draft spanned 40 rounds from 2012-19, but it could go down to as few as five rounds this year. MLB can increase that amount at its discretion, but regardless, it’s going to be a truncated event. Furthermore, while the draft is scheduled to start June 10, odds are that the league will push it back until sometime in July.

Courtesy of Callis, all teams’ bonus pools for this year’s draft can be seen below. Callis also included totals in the event of a 10-round draft, which are in parentheses. If you’re interested in finding out the slot value of each selection, check out Callis’ piece:

Orioles: $13,871,500 ($14,936,200)
Tigers: $13,276,000 ($14,348,100)
Royals: $12,499,500 ($13,549,800)
Marlins: $11,967,100 ($13,024,700)
Pirates: $11,132,700 ($12,162,800)
Padres: $10,652,600 ($11,675,600)
Rockies: $10,319,500 ($11,336,200)
Mariners: $10,218,400 ($11,255,200)
Blue Jays: $9,694,300 ($10,737,700)
Giants: $9,165,000 ($10,156,500)
Reds: $8,510,400 ($9,508,400)
Cardinals: $7,803,300 ($8,748,900)
White Sox: $7,744,700 ($8,749,200)
Indians: $7,616,200 ($8,551,100)
Rays: $7,432,400 ($8,362,200)
Diamondbacks: $7,166,200 ($8,128,000)
Mets: $7,101,200 ($8,057,500)
Rangers: $7,065,100 ($8,050,700)
Cubs: $6,702,600 ($7,676,000)
Nationals: $6,588,300 ($7,528,700)
Red Sox: $6,514,300 ($7,481,900)
Angels: $6,377,000 ($7,387,600)
Brewers: $6,028,600 ($6,979,500)
Dodgers: $5,862,900 ($6,768,000)
Phillies: $5,425,000 ($6,404,300)
Athletics: $5,199,300 ($6,118,900)
Twins: $4,493,400 ($5,408,000)
Braves: $4,114,100 ($5,039,000)
Yankees: $3,509,800 ($4,419,500)
Astros: $2,176,500 ($3,077,000)

MLB, MLBPA Agree On Framework Of 2020 Draft

By Steve Adams | March 26, 2020 at 11:31am CDT

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached an agreement on the framework of a delayed and shortened 2020 amateur draft, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel reports (Twitter thread). The notable changes would include pushing the draft back from early June to sometime in July, cutting the event to anywhere from five to ten rounds and partially deferring the payment of signing bonuses into the 2022 season.

Obviously, lopping off 75 percent of the rounds would lead to a vast number of undrafted amateurs — high school, junior college and four-year university students alike. McDaniel notes that there’s been discussion of a maximum bonus for undrafted players, though the $10,000 figure that’s been floated would likely bring about a dramatic uptick in the number of prep prospects opting to attend college and in the number of college juniors returning for a senior season.

The ramifications of such changes are numerous. The 2021 draft class would be immeasurably deeper, and the influx of high-quality college freshmen will in some ways flood college programs — perhaps leading to an increase of players selected out of the Division-II ranks of the NCAA. Many college seniors only sign for $10K as it is, so the financial component of those limited bonuses might not have a substantial impact, but it’ll nevertheless be atypical to see those players effectively create a secondary pool of free agents. As for high school prospects and college juniors who’d typically sign after the 10th round — those players regularly receive $100K bonuses, so the proposed $10K limit would have a far greater impact on their decisions.

Changes to the draft have seemed inevitable for some time now. The event was moved to Omaha in hopes that it would coincide with the College World Series, but the COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out the College World Series and the college and high school baseball seasons across North America. Prospects who command six- and seven-figure bonuses won’t played in front of scouts in months by the time the draft rolls around, and owners have expressed hesitance about paying out the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of combined signing bonuses at a time when the revenue streams of their respective clubs have effectively dried up.

The draft is one of many, many elements being negotiated between the league and the union, with other key points of interest including player salaries, service time, a delayed/altered schedule and the likely expansion of rosters as teams hopefully resume play at some point later this year. Of course, MLB and the MLBPA are also discussing the manner in which they’d be forced to proceed in the event that the 2020 season has to be canceled entirely. The two sides have been exchanging proposals for weeks, and all indications have been that they’re working toward an agreement but still hammering out the specifics of the arrangement.

MLB Faced With Difficult Questions Regarding Draft

By Steve Adams and Connor Byrne | March 18, 2020 at 9:59pm CDT

The Coronavirus pandemic has thrown professional sports into a state of chaos, with baseball in a particularly uncertain position given that its regular season hasn’t even started. But while much of the focus has been on when the season will start, that’s far from the only issue with which the league and players’ union are wrestling. The June draft, for instance, represents an extremely difficult challenge. High school and college seasons have both been halted, leaving clubs without any opportunities to scout this year’s crop of players.

To that end, Ronald Blum of the Associated Press reports that the league and the union have discussed canceling the draft entirely. Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic also report that possibility is under consideration, adding that a combined 2020-21 draft class has been discussed.

Of course, the myriad logistical problems associated with that scenario are rather apparent. College seniors, in particular, would be left out to dry. College juniors could simply stay for their senior year, but returning for a fourth season would be a double-edged sword; currently projected top picks would face the risk of tanking their stock with an injury or poor showing, while mid- and lower-round picks could have a chance to substantially elevate their stock.

Similarly, high school seniors would be left in a state of limbo. The league and union could alter the draft eligibility guidelines that currently don’t allow college freshmen to be selected, but that creates complications for and pushback from the NCAA. As Baseball America’s Carlos Colazzo points out, the level of competition for playing time among freshmen would skyrocket if the year’s entire prep class were to advance to collegiate ball. That, too, could complicate matters from a scouting perspective.

Collazo spoke with multiple scouting directors throughout the league, with one AL director opining that keeping the draft in place as presently constructed is the best solution. The director noted that “you’re going to have to worry about scouting the PDP League and the 2021 (class). Those are hugely important events while you’re also simultaneously preparing for the draft. Your scouts are going to be pulled in different directions.”

Clubs have been scouting both this year’s high school and college players for years already. And while the lack of a spring season doesn’t give those teams the most recent looks to evaluate the class, it avoids many of the logistical difficulties that come with postponing or canceling the 2020 draft. Certainly, evaluating high school students would be of particular difficulty, given that they’re earlier on in their development (both from a baseball and purely physical standpoint).

Collazo rightly notes that leaving the draft in place only impacts the current draft, whereas pushing back to a combined 2020-21 setting throws a wrench into multiple draft classes. A delay may well happen, though, with one agent telling Collazo it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the draft “moved back a little bit, or moved back as appropriate and they do try and get the college kids back to their campuses in May or June. Kind of ramp back up under those facilities. You do some regional type workouts at the big universities, all the area guys come in.” However, the agent admitted that’s far from a perfect scenario, wondering: “Who pays for it? When is it? What does the NCAA allow? You have all these things kind of stacking up.”

Holding the draft on schedule would seem to be the ideal outcome for baseball. Unfortunately, though, no one knows whether that will prove to be realistic with COVID-19 wreaking havoc across the globe.

Quick Hits: Peraza, Amateur Draft, Cardinals, Pitchers

By Mark Polishuk | March 16, 2020 at 12:12am CDT

Jose Peraza was linked to the Orioles, Indians, and two other unknown teams this offseason, though Peraza tells Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe that he heard from eight or nine clubs while on the open market. Peraza chose to sign with the Red Sox because of their recent success (“It’s a great place to play baseball if you want to win a championship“) and the opportunity they presented for regular second base work. “Second base is my most comfortable position. I played a lot of second base in the minors. I know I can help this team playing there,” Peraza said. He saw quite a bit of second base action over his four seasons in Cincinnati, though the Reds gave Peraza more time as a shortstop (almost exclusively so in 2018) and also used him as an outfielder. Peraza might get some utility action with the Sox but will likely see the most action as Boston’s first-choice option at the keystone.

NCAA Announces Intention To Extend Eligibility For Cancelled Spring Sports

By Jeff Todd | March 13, 2020 at 8:05pm CDT

The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced today that it intends to provide “eligibility relief” to Division I athletes whose spring seasons have been cancelled due to the spread of the coronavirus. Baseball teams are obviously included among the universal cancellations.

Details are yet to be finalized, with the expectation being that new one-off rules will be drafted in the “coming days and weeks.” It’s hard to know exactly how the system will work — both for those players who expected to exhaust their eligibility and those who’d stand to lose one year of it without playing. There’s also a potential impact to near-future collegians who had committed to schools based upon anticipated departures of certain fellow athletes.

There are obviously quite a few moving parts. For most of the players involved, it’s about pursuing their personal dreams of collegiate competition. But for others, there could be a real impact on their hopes for a professional future.

At present, the MLB Rule 4 amateur draft is scheduled for June 10-12 — just before the scheduled start of a College World Series that will no longer take place. That left quite a lot of time for draft-eligible players to showcase their talents for MLB teams. But with games cancelled and scouts currently held back from air travel, that’s all on pause.

Just how the NCAA cancellation will impact the draft is impossible to say now, and won’t ever be fully untied. It’ll do so in a multitude of subtle ways. Supposing the draft occurs at some point this summer, some diamonds in the rough will not have had a chance to show through. Seniors that now have a shot at returning to college ball could gain newfound draft leverage. If juniors are granted extra eligibility — and it isn’t even clear if that’s on the table — then they could conceivably have an extra bite at the draft apple.

MLB’s own draft eligibility rules may require some modification to accommodate the changes. No doubt there’ll be some amount of interaction between the league and the NCAA on the matter. In all likelihood, college eligibility relief will not factor as heavily at the very top of the draft. But it poses many potentially tricky issues. Sorting things out poses yet another challenge to the league.

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