MLB owners to discuss draft length next week

Hopefully by next week, we’ll have more information as to what is going to happen with the upcoming MLB Draft. Over the next week, Major League Baseball owners will discuss a length for the amateur draft and are likely to start the selections on the original date of June 10, according to The Associated Press.

Back on March 26, a deal was agreed upon that allowed the MLB to cut the draft from 40 rounds to as few as five this year and 20 next year.

Per the Associated Press article:

Signing bonus pools started in 2012 and limit the amount of money teams can spend. Each slot in the first 10 rounds is a signed a value — the range last year was $8,415,300 down to $142,200 — and each team’s values are added to a form a pool. Signing bonuses in the first 10 rounds count against the pool along with the amounts above $125,000 of players selected after the 10th round or who were bypassed in the draft and then signed. A team that exceeds it pool is taxed, and a club more than 5% above loses a first-round draft pick the next year — a threshold never reached.

As part of the March agreement, players and teams agreed that any draft-eligible player not selected this year or next would be limited to a signing bonus of no more than $20,000.MLB’s offer that the union rejected included an additional limit of only five bypassed players at up to $20,000, with the rest held to a maximum of $5,000. The union agreed in March that signing bonuses can be deferred: up to $100,000 will be due within 30 days of approval, and 50% of the rest payable on July 1 in each of the following two years.

As expected, the draft is going to be done virtually, as opposed to Omaha where the College World Series would have been taking place.

Links

• Joe Davis is back with another episode of “Cooking with Joe”. On this edition, Davis is showcasing his talent by grilling a roasted chicken.

• There have been some odd trades that have gone down in MLB history. However, none stranger than these 10 here.