It’s important to remember that the vast majority of ballplayers don’t earn millions and likely never will. Non-blue-chip minor leaguers and incoming professionals have long been disadvantaged relative to established big leaguers, and that’s true all the more now.
The re-worked Rule 4 draft drastically curtailed the amount of money available to draft-eligible amateur players. In addition to deferring payouts and cutting the forty-round process to just five rounds, the draft capped signing bonuses for undrafted players at just $20K.
Now, some teams are looking to carve out yet further concessions from amateur talent, as Kyle Glaser of Baseball America reports. Glaser reports, based upon sources at top agencies, that “at least four teams were offering nondrafted players, as well as a few drafted players, contracts for 2021 rather than 2020.”
The idea here is evidently to obtain the rights to the player while delaying his entry to the team’s system. That means pushing back the point at which a player would reach minor-league free agency — a rule designed to create upward pressure in a farm system. (Notably, Glaser corrects the initial report, clarifying that the timing of eventual Rule 5 eligibility would remain unchanged.)
In essence, this is another form of service manipulation. While the potential lack of a 2020 minor-league campaign provides some theoretical cover, it seems hard to justify this approach — particularly for players that are now bound to a given team because they were selected in the draft.
It’s certainly worth reading Glaser’s story for his account of the early stages of the undrafted free agent process. The dizzying recruitment period has mostly resulted in deals for collegiate seniors, as you’d expect. And as he explains, it isn’t over, as players that weren’t selected will remain eligible to sign as free agents until the week before the 2021 draft (if they haven’t already chosen to suit up in the collegiate ranks).
how is that possible? is it because the season might be cancelled or so the prospect can go back to collage and no other team can draft him?
As the butler from Mr Deeds would say, “sneaky sneaky sir.”
MLB is becoming dirtier and dirtier again. from the Astros to the Braves to the Red Sox and the Yankees. not sure what is going on with it all.
the Yankees didn’t cheat. Manfred just wants his face in the papers and his sport in the news
The Yankees did cheat. Stop being a homer.
No one knows yet. The documents have not been unsealed yet.
rred Sox fan
Jeterleader claiming Clemens wasn’t on the 99-00 Yankees? Let me guess Chucky boy was clean as well? How about Andy? Grimsley? Arod and Cano in 09? Jim Leyritz? Yanks had a dynasty due to cheating just like Red Sox 04,07,13. Baseball has Jeter in the HOF even when his stats have a asterisk next to it. Does he get the amount of abs had Chucky,Giambi,Sheff,Rondell White,Arod,Cano etc not been using and it’s pretty clear Jeter knew considering he stuck up for Giambi.
Omg man name any team and I can pick out roid users. I’m a Cardinals fan and we all know the big one but also know he wasn’t alone. There was a large percentage of people using back then. It became almost a matter of survival the numbers climbed so high. Excusable? No. But let’s face it every team was cheating then in some capacity. The Yankees just had the money to sign all the best performers who were in turn the biggest users. Think Giambi wasn’t using in Oakland?
The Mariners aren’t using roids and if they are they need to get their money back.
The Yankees did cheat. We know this. So did the Red Sox and Astros.
When was MLB, or any sport for that matter, ever not dirty? If you’re not naming every MLB team then your head is in the sand. Is it right, no? But the game has always been played in the gray areas. And based on the handling of the Astros, etc saga, you should understand why. Even in the information age, the benefits far surpass the penalties.
And the Astros only problem was one of their former players came forward publicly. No one was investigating them until Fiers. Had he not whistleblowed, there are no penalties and no one loses their jobs.
Yeah! Go cheat in the IFA market like the braves and red sox!
I love how Judge, Correa, and Bregman have all publicly tweeted on the other team cheating. Hypocrisy at its finest!
Then again, hypocrisy seems to be an overwhelming theme in today’s society.
This is a very scummy move by ownership. These players shouldn’t sign and they should publicly shame these organizations
That’s easy for use to say, but seniors who finished college may never get another opportunity.
Except those seniors were offered next season in the NCAA and can then go through the process next year again.
Ah, that’s right. Thanks for the reminder.
*us to say….
Gotta love auto-correct.
Owners are “scummy” for not wanting players to accrue service time while they aren’t performing that service!!!! Good logic there.
Heads up the link to the Glaser article doesn’t work. It directs me to a page in their site that simply states, “Swing and Miss.”
Manfred yet again siding with the owners. Would be nice to see him stick up for the players for once.
is this sarcasm? I honestly cannot tell
Well, duh. He works for the owners.
Yo @Jeff Todd, the link isn’t complete. Update it to:baseballamerica.com/stories/how-teams-are-recruiti…
Just another way for greedy owners to manipulate players for economic gain. Players are being treated like slaves.
Poor choice of words. Nobody is forcing them to play baseball.
They are doing everything they can to save a buck.
My boss used to make me work welding. I didn’t get paid as much as the guy down the road that had 10 years exp on me and more certs. I found it unfair that someone with more skill made more money.
You know what I did? I quit and am making $24000 a month doing one thing that takes 7 hrs a week. Follow the link and it will take you to my web page. WWW.PEOPLEAREIDIOTS.DUMBDUMBS/whyareyoustillreadin…
I’m confused. Given that a minor league season isn’t likely to happen, doesn’t a contract starting in 2021 make some sense?
I thought about something like this about a week ago.. if 20K is the cap, fine, but whats to keep a team from then giving say a 5 yr deal for 200-300k thereafter? They are truly free agents correct? Maybe there is a specific rule for this I dont remember reading
What’s really amazing about this is that there wasn’t language that prohibited this from happening beforehand.
I feel like it’s a bad thing only for drafted players. Undrafted players aren’t locked in to a team and therefore can market anywhere. No one is forcing Undrafted players to sign these contracts. Now if every single team was offering 2021 contracts as a result of collusion that’s a whole other issue.