1:45m: ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel adds that undrafted amateurs will be eligible to sign beginning on June 14 — three days after the draft’s conclusion (Twitter thread). There will be a “dead period” for contact between teams and those players in the interim days. Teams aren’t permitted to offer undrafted free agents anything other than what they can offer draftees (e.g. scholarship money for high school players).
12:30pm: The shortened 2020 MLB Amateur Draft will be held remotely, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter thread). It’s not a particularly surprising development but is nevertheless yet another departure from the norm. Per Passan, teams won’t be permitted to have draft rooms. Each club’s head of baseball operations will be on camera during the draft, without audio, as was the case with last month’s virtually conducted NFL Draft. The MLB Draft will be conducted on June 10-11, with Day One including just the first round and Day Two featuring the rest.
This year’s draft has been shortened to just five rounds — a reality brought about by owners strongly pushing back against paying the wide slate of bonuses associated with a traditional 40-round draft amid widespread revenue losses. Undrafted players will be able to sign with any club, although those bonuses will be capped at just $20K.
As such, the next several drafts figure to have a substantial influx of talent, with so many would-be mid-round prospects forgoing their first steps into pro ball. The truncated structure will also come with significant ramifications in the NCAA, as countless prep prospects who would’ve gone pro will now instead opt for college ball. Many juniors will return for a senior season when they otherwise would not have, as well.
The No. 1 overall pick, held by the Tigers, will come with a slot value of $8,415,300, tweets The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal — the same slot value as the No. 1 pick in 2019. As for the actual payout of bonuses, they’ll be heavily deferred. Rosenthal notes that only $100K will be paid to players up front. They’ll receive 50 percent of their remaining bonus in July 2021 and the other 50 percent in July 2022.
It’s been known for some time that this year’s slot values won’t increase, as they do on an annual basis in every other year — another ownership-driven issue that did not sit well with agents. The MLBPA agreed to numerous concessions on the draft when negotiating the March agreement that granted players service time and at least a small portion of their salary in the event of a canceled season or prorated salaries in a partial season. Draft prospects, of course, aren’t represented by the union, and the Players Association sought to protect its members first and foremost. Owners have since contended that said agreement didn’t account for spectator-less games and sought further salary reduction among MLB players.
Imagine the posibilty of drafting a future HOF while taking a dump at the same time.
Best feeling in the world
That’s called fantasy baseball.
Lul
Lmao
when are they hosting the other 35 rounds?
Maybe 2021… Probably not though…
I believe they’ve slashed the usual draft to 20 rounds beginning next year.
I hope this is not another Basement tv event.
Enough of these basement tv interviews & shows !
Don’t worry. there is plenty of other time the other 364 days of the year for harold reynolds to run off with his diarrhea of the mouth rambling on about meaningless topics.
That’s why I stopped watching mlb network. Him, Eric Byrnes, and I forget the other guys name but they are just consistently annoying.
Mark Derosa
When I first discovered I had MLB Network I was obsessed and watched ALL the time. Eventually it became like ESPN to me with to many different programs and too many annoying hosts. I only turn on MLB channel now for games and trade deadline day coverage.
I’m dropping my cable, the only reason I really have it is for baseball games. The constant straw grasping by MLBN and my local network, ntm players like Bauer to try to stay relevant right now is getting pretty annoying. The MLB Show tournament was ill conceived to say the least. Quit stringing us along with union haggling and set a date, or just call it off already.
I cannot believe we are picking future players and maybe a President who are in their basements !
Ya, they’re “confined” to their basements the same way Chris Cuomo was…..
And they’re not letting Uncle Joe come out of the basement until he agrees to NOT wear his underpants over his trousers……
Hilarious that you think “Uncle Joe” is the one that is mentally unstable. Hilarious.
I was voting for Joe probably before you were born….Have some fun!!!! I still love ’em, even after what they did to Bernie.
Yeah man, it’s really hilarious. Truly laughing out loud right now man. Good job, you got the entire MLBTR comment section laughing. We all are ecstatic to see your political interjection.
Bob, thanks for the guesstimate on my age lol. But alas, I’m old.
24, lighten up and switch to decaf. It’s gonna be ok. Besides, I was just responding. You know, like you did.
What is hilarious is you think he is mentally stable.
If only in comparison with the Orange Snowflake, he is son.
I thought he lived under a bridge.
They need two days to do 5 rounds? Ummm….
“The MLB Draft will be conducted on June 10-11, with Day One includinng just the first round and Day Two featuring the rest.”
It enables them to assess the first round to see what went right, what went wrong, and then make any tweaks for the other four rounds. Common business procedures.
With that logic, no draft should have more than one round of a draft per day.
Touche, but you missed the point, lol
It’s an interesting conundrum for a top level high school player. You don’t know if colleges will even be open next school year. Of course, you also don’t know about professional baseball but at least you’re getting money instead of spending it on a remote education.
The lowest paid fifth round draft choice comes with a slot value of $324k. Take $324k or take your chances? Especially in COVID times, take the money. You don’t know about the future, but you can count on $324k.
Took me 10 years to make that much money…before taxes. Turns out baseball players make more than teachers? #newstonoone
Untrue
If they are playing college football they will baseball
If I understand correctly, one benefit for those not drafted in one of the 5 rounds is that they can essentially chose the team they want to sign with. And maybe that gives them some leverage on what Milb level they start at?
Report out of Chicago saying Cubs Owner does not see this season happening.
Having players like Blake Snell talking about wanting all their money is just giving another Blackeye to baseball !
I am still hopeful, but the clock and the season is ticking away..
July 4th time line or mid July has to be done. Or we can switch to Football talk.
Forget NHL or NBA coming back……they are done already..
There are going to be many college players who will become a “steal” down the line as undrafted players.
One other thing, the virus is spreading big time in Mexico…..so I think the Mexican League option is out the door for many MLB Hispanic minor league players. Their MLB team will not have them play with that league.
Maybe MLB Network and ESPN can share coverage with either Amsinger or Ravech as main host
A rebuilding team could entice some really good talent(unrestricted); with a sells pitch(no pun intended) for a chance of rapid enhancement thru the minors.
This could be an incredible bonanza for the Owners. There’s a lot of talent after the 5th round, and there are going to be a lot of players who have no alternative to sign for next to nothing. The Union’s work so far has been abysmal.
Undrafted high schoolers will go to college, even junior college. College juniors stay for their senior year. College seniors – stay fit and enter the draft next year. Why sign for $20k?
MLBPA has the opportunity to leverage this to get players to free agency sooner. Already getting squeezed with the short draft AND minor league restructuring, they would be farther ahead to make concessions for this year in exchange for knocking a year, or two or three, off future team control.
Not only could they manipulate significant public sentiment to their side with this approach but they can also largely shift any perceived “greed” almost entirely on the owners if they do it right.
The get-out-of-bankruptcy-free (for want of a better name) clause that could ONLY be to the owners’ benefit is going to be a problem for the players at some point IF they don’t manage it to their advantage.
Could they have been forward-looking enough to agree to that clause with an eye on the longer view?
Nahhh the deer-in-the-headlights look in Tony Clark’s eyes tells me he’s overmatched again.
Of course, that’s just my opinion. I haven’t seen the books either
@Kodiak
The mlbpa already leveraged this opp by throwing the draftees under the bus. Regardless of how much, if any, season is played, current members get a full year of service time, and closer to free agency.
Phillies I like 2 guys a lot in rd 1
Abel-RHP
And
Crochet-LHP
phillies draft hitters these day
We see how that has worked out. Wasted #1 pick on Moniak and Randolph is actually worst. At least we have Bohm(I think he will be a good one)
I wonder if there are players who would prefer playing for a big name club ( Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers etc), or their hometown team ( wherever that is), and take the $20,000 and a college scholarship ( especially if they could get an Ivy League or Stanford education paid for by the team)? It would not shock me if there were.
Depends on what they think they could get in the 2021 draft. Fifth round money is $324k-$426k at slot value. Tenth round was projected to be $140-$150k. That is a lot of money, especially when you’re look at $20-$30k a year as a minor leaguer. If one could go to junior college or stay for a senior year in college, holding out for a better paycheck has some appeal.
I happen to agree with you. One of the biggest winners of the 2019 Draft was Montana Shimmel. He was the 36th Round Pick of the Yankees out of Stamford, Connecticut. He signed at the very end for $125,000. He won because he signed before the 2020 draft cut ( and of course, Coronavirus)happened. But my question is. If I am not drafted, do I take $20,000 now ( along with the scholarship) if I can sign with a team I like, instead of waiting until 2021 or 2922 when there will be a glut of players and a smaller draft?
Allow Draft Pick Trades in it.