In a world full of change, we can usually expect it. Baseball fans are seeing plenty of change in 2020 since the shutdown. MLB’s commissioner, Rob Manfred has been a busy man during the shutdown. Probably for all the wrong reasons according to alot of baseball purists. MLB has reduced the number of Minor League teams starting next year and now they have shortened the 2020 MLB Draft to only 5 rounds. The draft is scheduled to take place on June 10th. We will be covering it, especially for the Rangers.
The 2020 Major League Baseball draft will be five rounds, sources tell @kileymcd and me. All players who go undrafted would be eligible to sign for a maximum of $20,000. While there was a proposal to the union for a 10-round draft, the sides didn?t come to an agreement.
? Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 8, 2020
As you can see by the tweet above by Jeff Passan, any undrafted player can still be signed but only for a maximum of $20,000.
CJ had a couple of tweets that shows just how much this may cost players. It’s always about the money isn’t it?
Monetarily rounds 6-10 would see a big drop in signing bonuses.
Names like Trey Mancini, Mitch Garver, Matthew Boyd and Brad Keller.
2019 signing bonus slots in the 6-10th round ranged from $142,000 – $301,000.
Great work on this by Matt Benson of @Sportradar. We’ll cover it all on Loud Outs on @MLBNetworkRadio starting at 10AM tomorrow.
? CJ Nitkowski (@CJNitkowski) May 9, 2020
I imagine this will make the decision a little easier for players between pro ball and college ball. A benefit for the undrafted players is they would be able to choose which team they sign with.
Scouting will still be needed
Analytics are cool and all but teams are still going to need to place an emphasis on scouting players. You have to put eyes on a player to get the complete picture of their make-up.
My initial opinion on the draft being shortened is that I don’t like it. It doesn’t seem fair to the players that would have been drafted especially in rounds 6-10 due to the reduction in money. That leads me to another point: Will the level of talent still be there that normally would be after 5 rounds? More players will choose college over $20,000 so the depth might drop.
How do you feel about the shortened draft?
