The MLB Players Association announced the details of its first proposal related to the Rule 4 amateur draft on Wednesday. This comes a month on the heels of the league’s initial draft proposal. Evan Drellich of The Athletic and JJ Cooper of Baseball America were among those to cover the news.
Unsurprisingly, there’s very little overlap. The Players Union’s hewed closely to the status quo, whereas the league had sought fundamental changes. MLB’s proposal would prevent high school players from being eligible and limit the draft to players age 20 and above. The league also wanted to go from 20 to 12 rounds with hard draft slots that don’t allow players to negotiate their signing bonuses.
The MLBPA wants to keep the 20-round draft and soft slot value system, which essentially allows teams to divide their signing bonuses however they like as long as they stay within a fixed overall pool. The pool amount varies based on what picks the team has, each of which comes with a “recommended” slot value.
Every team will sign certain players for above or below slot to maximize their overall talent haul. A lot of high school draftees sign for above slot, as they have the leverage of going to college if teams don’t meet a higher asking price. Clubs can compensate by signing college players (many of them seniors) on bonuses below the slot value to make the math work.
Teams are technically allowed to blow past their overall bonus pool. They’d forfeit future draft choices and incur tax penalties for doing so, so no team has ever gone that route. The MLBPA, as one might expect, wants to reduce those penalties and raise overall bonus pools.
The union likes the broad flexibility for players to negotiate their bonuses. They’d presumably consider the high school eligibility even more important. Their proposal also called for expanding eligibility to all college sophomores, a year earlier than the current system for non-junior college players who haven’t turned 21.
The MLBPA doesn’t represent amateur players. However, the union is well aware of the higher financial ceiling for players who enter the professional ranks earlier. They can move more quickly through the minors and begin their service clock, with some top prospects reaching the majors in their early 20s. That gets them to arbitration and free agency more quickly, keeping longer-term contracts in play.
This union proposal did include a few changes compared to the status quo. Most notably for fans, the MLBPA also proposed allowing draft pick trading with some restrictions. The league proposal also permitted pick trading, a rare source of common ground.
Most fans are in support of expanding draft pick trading beyond the competitive balance selections, and there’s a good chance that’ll ultimately be implemented in the next CBA. There’ll be limits on how far into the future a team can trade picks, but MLB’s extremely rigid approach to date has put them behind other leagues and removed a source of intrigue leading up to the draft.
The union also proposed moving the draft up to June. That was traditionally the case. MLB moved it into July in 2021, syncing it with All-Star festivities in hope of creating more fan interest. The proposal did not mention a potential international draft, which MLB sought unsuccessfully in the 2022 negotiations and has proposed again.
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