With the Major League Baseball Collective Bargaining Agreement set to expire on December 11th 2011, one hot topic could be the way the MLB draft is set up. As of right now, college and high school players can be drafted, while international players are free to sign with any team they like.
This brings me to my first problem, why do international prospects get to choose the team they want to sign with, while players from the North America cannot? Yes, they can choose not to sign with the team that drafts them, in a chance to move up in the next draft or because they can’t come to a contract agreement with the team that drafts them, but it’s not the same as picking the team you wish to play for. My solution to this is to have a worldwide draft. There would be a maximum age limit of 22 on what would be considered a draft eligible player in the international pool of players. An age limit is appropriate for international players because most international prospects sign before they are 22 and most college baseball players graduate or get drafted before they are 22.
Another thing I think needs to change in the draft is the awarding of compensatory picks for free agents that sign elsewhere. Why should the last place team with the first overall pick, have their second round pick start at pick 50 or 60? It is unfair to the bad teams and doesn’t create a level playing field in the draft. As a result of the discarded compensatory picks, free agents would no longer need to be labeled type A or B free agents. Being labeled a type A free agent means the team that signs the free agent has to give up their first round pick if it is unprotected. It is unjust to a veteran player who has accrued the necessary service time to reach free agency to be labeled a type A free agent because it have shown to adversely effect their open market value. A good example of this was Orlando Hudson, type A, after his 2008 season. Hudson, who was one of the league’s more consistent second baseman and one of the premier defensive players at his position, had to settle for a modest one year contract for $3.36 million after hitting .305 the year before and winning two gold gloves in three years.
The last change I think should be worked on in the new CBA is the trading of draft picks. Baseball is the only one of the four major sports to not allow a team to trade its draft picks. With draft picks and developing young players becoming so important, now that players aren’t playing at a high level into their late 30’s and early 40’s, most likely because of the crack down on steroid use, I think this is a perfect time to introduce a new form of player movement. It will also help offset the loss of compensation picks by allowing teams to trade their players if they feel they will lose them in free agency. The trading of draft picks has worked extremely well in the other major sports, so why can’t it work for the MLB?
-Dakota
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