NEW YORK – Major League Baseball will cut its amateur draft from 40 rounds to five this year, a move that figures to save teams about $30 million.
Clubs gained the ability to reduce the draft as part of their March 26 agreement with the players’ association and MLB plans to finalize a decision next week to go with the minimum, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because no decision had been announced.
There will be just 160 players drafted, by far the fewest since the annual selection started in 1965, and the combined value of their signing bonus pools is $235,906,800. The amount of signing bonus pool money eliminated is $29,578,100.
Teams made the move with the season delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and the sport trying to cut expenses to cope with revenue loss.
“Particularly given the negligible economic impact to what’s already a cheap acquisition cost, this approach is is grossly shortsighted,” said agent Jeff Berry, co-head of CAA Baseball. “To drastically reduce opportunity and talent and talent pools, it stunts growth and diversity at all levels and is really a self-inflicted sabotage of the long-term health and popularity of the game.”