​This article continues a series examining the upcoming major league baseball collective bargaining agreement negotiations. The opening installments in this series can be accessed here, here, and here. Today marks the first of two days for the MLB Draft, with the initial four rounds scheduled for today and rounds five through twenty planned for tomorrow. Previously, the draft has seen significant changes in length: from 1998 to 2011, the draft spanned 50 rounds, allowing 1,500 young players to have a chance to hear their names called or at least receive a call. From 2012 through 2019, the draft was shortened to 40 rounds, still enabling 1,200 players to be selected. The 2020 draft was dramatically reduced to five rounds due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as many high school and college seasons were canceled and recruiting slowed. When normalcy returned in 2021, the draft expanded to 20 rounds, the format in place today. In other words, over roughly fifteen years, the total number of players drafted in MLB declined by about 40%.
As with many other proposals advanced by baseball’s owners on the eve of the expiration of the current CBA, there is a strong push to drastically curtail the amateur draft and to introduce an international draft. Let’s begin with the international draft, which is generally viewed as the less contentious of the two issues. The two sides—players and owners—nearly reached an agreement on an international draft in 2022. It was the final sticking point before the new CBA was signed, but the matter was deferred for four months. The owner’s position offered that if players would accept the international draft, they would in turn drop the qualifying offer system. When neither side compromised, the status quo remained in place. There is a notable sense of asymmetry in treating amateurs from the United States differently from those born and playing in other nations, and the fact that the union previously indicated openness to the concept five years ago lends some credence to the belief that they might revisit it this time around. However, it’s worth noting that there are no foreign-born players on the MLBPA’s negotiating committee, so their perspectives may not have a direct say at the negotiating table.
Turning to the domestic draft, MLB is pushing to reduce the number of rounds again—to 12. This would represent a cutting of 76% from the 2011 format and would result in 240 fewer players being drafted under the current system. Additionally, the owners want to eliminate high school players from the draft entirely. The league argues that the evolution of college baseball over the past decade has been profound. Today’s leading programs offer resources, competition, and national exposure that were unimaginable a decade ago. By focusing a draft system on college-aged players and by making most college players eligible one year earlier, the league contends that more players will benefit from both a college education and an elite development environment, while still reaching professional baseball—and ultimately the major leagues—more quickly. This approach would supposedly create a pathway that emphasizes higher education and faster development for players who can benefit from college-level competition and coaching, before transitioning to professional baseball.