|
The status of the draft had been in flux amid
the coronavirus pandemic, with reports in late March indicating
the date would be pushed back to July.
Instead, according to multiple reports Friday, the draft will
begin June 10 -- last year's draft was June 3-5. But the major
changes come to the format.
With owners looking to save money in the wake of lost revenue as
baseball remains on hold, the draft will be sliced from last
year's total of 40 rounds. After this year's fifth round is
completed, teams will be allowed to sign an unlimited number of
undrafted players, but for a maximum of $20,000 each.
According to reports, MLB proposed a 10-round draft in exchange
for a smaller pool of bonus money and a cap on the number of
undrafted players who could get the $20,000 max, but the MLB
Players Association found the limits too restrictive.
ESPN's Jeff Passan reported that scouts and front-office
executives were against such a drastic cut to the length of the
draft. Passan tweeted that the slot values for Rounds 6-10
amount to $29,578,100, less than $1 million a team, leading both
amateur players and team executives to disagree with the
decision to scrap those rounds.
Passan added that some owners pushed back in an effort to keep
the draft as short as possible.
The $20,000 max on undrafted players was another item drawing
much criticism in the wake of the reports. Per MLB.com, the
bonus money allotted to the first pick in the sixth round in
2019 was $301,600. The bonus money for the last pick in the 10th
round last year was $142,200.
Also per Passan, teams are allowed to delay signing bonuses,
with a maximum of $100,000 to be paid within 30 days of a player
signing, another payment due by July 1, 2021, and the remaining
balance paid by July 1, 2022.
All of these changes were made possible by an agreement between
the league and the union in late March that addressed numerous
issues that permitted MLB to delay the season indefinitely
because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Baltimore Orioles will have the largest bonus pool to allot
to its picks -- $13.9 million, per MLB.com. The Tigers are next
at $13.3 million. Detroit has the No. 1 overall pick, and the
Orioles select second.
The Astros have the smallest pool at $2.2 million, largely as a
result of their forfeiture of first- and second-round picks as
part of the punishment for their cheating scandal.
--Field Level Media
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
|
