This post will discuss what I consider the single most important step we can put in place to increase competitive balance, long term, in baseball: institute a separate international draft each year on January 15th and change slightly the rules of years of player control and Rule 5 draft eligibility. Why, you may ask, do I think an international amateur draft is important?
Currently, although there is some nuance to it, international amateur free agents can generally be signed after their 16th birthday. Each year there is a signing period that runs from January 15th through mid-December. There are international signing budgets that teams are supposed to stick to and, while the most recent CBAs have added some teeth to penalties for teams exceeding those budgets, the penalties are not nearly as severe as exceeding a budget in the US amateur draft (Rule 4 draft).
As it stands now, teams 'negotiate' with the 'trainers' of these young Latin American players to, essentially, lock these kids into an organization as early as 14 years old, in anticipation of the kids signing when they turn 16. While these commitments are non-binding, these understandings are pretty strong and I think we should find a way to eliminate them and make international amateur acquisitions favor the weaker teams.
So, how would an international amateur draft work?
(1) As amateur baseball and travel leagues do not exist in Latin American countries to the extent they do in the US, group training and player evaluation combines would have to be set up by MLB to help identify the best players for each draft cycle. This includes age verification. Unlike the current system, players would only be able to be drafted if they are 16 years old on the date of the draft.
(2) Each international draft will be five rounds and the draft order will be set based solely on the inverse order of winning percentage in the previous ML season. There would be no adjustment for playoff teams vs non-playoff teams and penalties for exceeding a draft budget would be the same as in the Rule 4 draft.
(3) Teams would be assigned draft budgets based on their draft slot values, just like they are for the Rule 4 draft and the same penalties would apply for the Rule 4 draft relative to loss of draft picks.
(4) After the 5 rounds teams could sign, as NDFAs, as many players as their would be allowed under the roster restrictions MLB has on DSL players. Like the Rule 4 draft, an upper limit on bonuses of these NDFAs would be set up and bonuses larger than those limits would count against a team's draft budget.
(5) To spur competitive balance, I propose giving revenue sharing teams an additional $3 million over their draft budgets that they HAVE to spend on signing international amateur players from the draft or as NDFAs.
(6) The rules on player control and Rule 5 draft eligibility have to change, too. Players signed before they turn 17 years old would be under the control of a team for 7 years after they are drafted and their Rule 5 eligibility is pushed back one year from the current level. These players are also automatically granted a 4th option year unless they make it to the major leagues before they are Rule 5-eligible for the first time. These changes would address what currently happens where really good prospects are protected on the 40 man roster long before they are prepared to play in the major leagues, burning up all their option years before they can establish themselves in the majors.
OK, that's it for the international draft. Next time we will talk about changes to the Rule 5 draft.
No comments:
Post a Comment