How Would It Work If We Even Shortened the MLB Draft?

 With age comes perspective. or so I have been told.

I have been a draft geek for most of my life.  When I grew up Cleveland's baseball team was so bad that the two times of year I could get really excited about it was during the draft and during September callups when I would search for heroes that were going to save me from the bad and mediocre teams of my youth.

So it was disappointing to me when the draft went from an unlimited number of rounds (no mor Mike Piazzas) to 40 rounds and then, after COVID and the reduction in minor league teams, to 20 rounds (no more Cody Allens and Daniel Schneemans).

Ahh, but we are back to that perspective thing (no pun intended, based on the name of this blog). 

Watching the Guardians draft in these last few years it is clear to me that the draft could really be limited to 15 rounds and it wouldn't impact the ML roster...like ever.  This would especially be true if HS kids were eliminated from the draft pool.

So what would a draft of less than 20 rounds look like?

1.  I can't see the draft being less than 15 rounds.  There has to be some wiggle room in case you can't sign some of your early picks. 

2. Just in case owners are thinking they can save money on the draft by shortening it, let's make sure that doesn't happen:

    a. The 15-round draft would be completely slotted, with the last pick in the 15th round having a slot value of $150,000.  Same rules as apply now would apply if this change was implemented relative to not exceeding your bonus pool or your bonus pool plus 5% if you are OK with paying a penalty.

    b. There will be NO trading of draft picks before the 10th round and only the top 10 teams in terms of revenue could trade picks, whereas every team could accept picks in trade. Draft picks from the upcoming draft are the only ones that can be traded. Look, while free trading of draft picks might make the horsetrading in baseball more fun, the goal of this rule would be to keep teams from crippling themselves long term AND to eliminate yet another way for owners to be cheap because trading a draft pick means they don't have to spend money on SIGNING the guy they drafted at that pick.

    c. Unlike proposals that have been floated, teams could sign up to 5 NDFAs with the top value being $140,000.  Anything over this bonus would count against the draft pool bonus.

    d. Obviously there would be no HS kids drafted and players are eligible for the draft after completing their 2nd year in college. If a player doesn't go to college they would be eligible in the first draft 3 years (2 seasons) after they graduated from high school.

So, we have cut the draft down by 5 rounds to limit the need to fill out your draft with organizational players who have little chance to make the majors.  We have also raised the bonuses for players by extending the slotting down to the end of the 15th round.  Finally, we have added some intrigue by allowing limited trading of draft picks in a way that doesn't allow cheap teams to avoid drafting players just to save money.  

I think this is a good plan but, of course, this is collective bargaining where good plans go to die.