Major League Baseball and the players’ union are trying to hammer out a new CBA before the current one expires in December. New MLB Draft rules are among the anti-American proposals being discussed. The most famous topic in the negotiations is the communist idea of a salary cap, removing the capitalist nature of professional baseball. While this idea may fly in the face of the American economic model, it is a good idea and a necessary one.
The draft, on the other hand, takes an approach that literally spells out how major league baseball will discriminate against the young players of its home country, but not those of other countries. The league’s proposal suggests disallowing high school players from being drafted, raising the domestic player minimum age to 20. International players are allowed to be drafted younger, but that minimum age is being raised from 16 to 18.
MLB Draft Rules Mimicking NFL and NBA
The National Football League (NFL) has had some sort of age limit for years. In order to be eligible for the NFL Draft, a player needs to be three years removed from his high school graduating class. Players would opt to attend a University and play three years of college football before turning pro, giving the appearance that the pro rule was created to work in kahoots with the NCAA.
The reality is that the NFL is using college football, not the other way around. The league has no minor league system to prepare players for the pro game, so it uses the NCAA as its minor affiliate. The NBA took a similar approach to its draft in 2005, when it instituted the famous “one and done” rule. To be draft eligible, a player needs to be 19 years old and one year removed from his graduating class. The reason it’s not two or three years like it’s football big brother is that the NBA does have a developmental league (G-League).
The NHL has a deep minor league system, and for that reason, they have always allowed high school players to be drafted. The young player may not be ready for the pro game, but he will have time to get ready in the lower levels of the league. Each team has its own minor league affiliates, unlike the NBA. Major League Baseball has the deepest and most intricate minor league system of all the leagues, so it makes no sense to create an age limit.
Youth Is Too Risky
The MLB is trying to protect itself from big investments in high-risk players. First-round picks often get massive signing bonuses, and when that player is a teenager, it may take years for that investment to pay off, or in many cases, it never does. The poster boy for this would be former Yankees prospect Brien Taylor. He was the first overall pick by the New York Yankees in the MLB Draft back in 1991, and his agent (Scott Boras) made him the first high school player ever to get a $1 million bonus ($1.55M).
After a season in the minors, Taylor tore a tendon in his shoulder (how is still a matter of legend and debate), and never regained his insane velocity. While $1.55 million may seem like a pittance to a team like the Yankees, it began a trend that has only grown over the years. In 2022, Druw Jones was drafted second overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks and received an $8.2 million signing bonus. Four years later, he hasn’t sniffed the majors and is hitting .244 in AA ball.
If baseball players are forced to play two or three years of college baseball, they become more of a known commodity and less of a risk. While this may make sense, why are international players able to be drafted at 18 in the new proposal? What makes an international player a lower risk than an American player? In the past, the signing bonuses for international players have been significantly less than those in the amateur draft.
The new proposal, though, removes international free agency and creates an international draft, and the bonus pool for those players is the same as the pool for the domestic draft. That’s what makes this proposal so anti-America. The MLB is proposing that the same money be given to foreign and domestic players drafted, but is allowing foreign players to enter the league at a younger age for some reason.
Like the salary cap, this proposal in the CBA is likely to face stiff opposition from the MLBPA. Unless the league gets its head out of an unnamed orifice, a lockout or strike may be inevitable.
