With 166 days remaining before Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expires, MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association met for bargaining Thursday. During the session, the league proposed a sweeping overhaul of the game’s amateur-entry system that would affect both domestic and international players.
Under the proposal, high school players would be ineligible for the domestic draft and would need to be at least two years removed from graduation to be selected. An international draft would be instituted for every player outside the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Both the domestic draft, currently 20 rounds, and the new international draft would be reduced to 12 rounds.
The plan would raise the minimum international signing age from 16 to 18 and set the domestic draft minimum at 20 on Sept. 1. College players would become eligible after their sophomore season rather than after their junior season. Signing bonuses for both drafts would be hard-slotted and capped at $200 million, a figure the proposal says is roughly what international players receive now and about half of current domestic spending under the existing system.
All draft picks would be tradable. The proposal also calls for a reduction in the number of teams included in the draft lottery and the elimination of competitive-balance picks. MLB described college baseball as “an increasingly important pathway” and said the changes would steer more high-end amateur talent through college as a mandatory stop in the domestic development pipeline.
Undrafted players from both the domestic and international pools could sign for a maximum of $10,000 under the proposal. The plan also states there would be no cuts to minor league teams in 2030, when the 120 player-development licenses that MLB grants are set to expire.
The players’ union responded quickly, issuing a statement that called the proposal harmful to the next generation of players and damaging to the future of the game. The debate over removing high school players from the draft is not new; the league noted it has discussed the change for years and pointed to the long history of high-school and international signees reaching the majors. Among the 12 largest contracts listed in the proposal’s materials are Juan Soto ($765 million, signed as an international free agent from the Dominican Republic), Shohei Ohtani ($700 million, Japan), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ($500 million, Dominican Republic international free agent), Mike Trout ($426.5 million, high school), Mookie Betts ($365 million, high school) and Aaron Judge ($360 million, college).
