The idea of Major League Baseball somehow finally gaining a measure of control over an international signing process that St. Louis Cardinals VP Jeff Luhnow calls “the wild, wild west” may be inching closer to reality.
ESPN’s Jorge Arangure tweeted Thursday evening that Major League Baseball’s owners are in favor of an international draft and the new director of the players union has already gone on record saying they would not oppose it.
If true, the sides need to get together today to begin tackling what will surely be some very complex issues. The current collective bargaining agreement has two more years to run, so there is still ample time if the parties are truly serious.
The union, formally known as the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), has a brand new head man in Michael Weiner. Well, not entirely new. OK, not new at all. The executive director had been the group’s general counsel and has been employed by the MLBPA for over 20 years. As such, Weiner is expected to continue the policies of his predecessor, Donald Fehr, who had led the union for the last 26 years.
In a Thursday LA Times story, Weiner affirmed the MLBPA would support an international draft. In reality, the union’s position has not changed. Back in 2006, while the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was being negotiated, the MLBPA was reportedly willing to discuss an international draft, but the owners declined.
Like any new idea, in instituting an international draft, the devil will be in the details.
Past management objections to the concept included increased staffing and related expense, the difficulty of aligning processes with varying country laws including testing and dealing with increased temptation to falsify player ages and names – all meaty issues. Yet those same challenges exist today without the structure of a draft.
The countries themselves may provide the greatest opposition. In fact, as recently as 2007, Puerto Rican government officials formally requested the island’s players be removed from the First-Year Player Draft pool because the related restrictions put their prospects on uneven ground compared to their neighbors. Of course, that went nowhere.
Those developing the new international draft guidelines would need to devise some strong penalties for nations that either directly try to opt out or indirectly scuttle the process by building unreasonably high fences. In other words, the draft must be administered equally across all nations or it will fail as circumvention methods would surely be identified and exploited.
One obvious reason the owners may be changing their tune from their indifference in 2006 and prior and come down in favor of subjecting international players to the draft is, you guessed it, money. They are likely interested in gaining control over the rapid and unchecked escalation in bonuses for top amateur players we have seen in recent years.
Yet gaining control in one area could lead to loss of control in another. A management objection to the draft in the past was driven by a fear that bonuses for mid-tier players might actually increase, as the draft formally establishes a player’s position in the rigidly-defined financial pecking order.
The primary way ownership might try to head this off is by attempting to institute a slotting system like is in place today for the players drafted from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Weiner and the MLBPA may agree with the idea of a draft, but are dead set against slotting, which seems to be collusion by its very definition. The new director labeled it “a salary cap for entry-level players”. Of course, the words “salary cap” are a lightning rod if there ever was one.
While relations between the Lords of Baseball and the union have generally been amicable in recent years, the current undertow of potential collusion charges due to the depressed free agent market could scuttle progress on this and many other issues between now and the end-of-year 2011 conclusion of the current CBA.
An international draft won’t happen without some uncharacteristic proactivity and leadership from an MLB administration that is more known for its inability to resolve far less complex problems within the game.
Yet there is still room for optimism.
Here’s hoping the final years of the Bud Selig regime can be remembered for accomplishing something extremely important for the future of the game – the institution of an international draft.
Don’t hold your breath, though.
The problem, as I see it, isn’t whether we draft or don’t draft these kids. It’s how little teams know about the kids they’re signing.
So I think MLB could improve its situation in Latin America with a much simpler rule change: don’t allow teams to sign players under 18. You couldn’t do it all at once, but you could easily phase it in over 3-4 years.
Teams would be dealing with more physically mature kids, and would have a lot more time to evaluate kids as they develop, same as they currently have with American high schoolers.
No reason they couldn’t do both.
Why have an international draft separate from the amateur draft? Why not just dump all of the players into one pool?
Yet another interesting option…
Lou and Brian, gee whilikers, you guys.
These societies are not mirror images of the United States. Public education opportunites may end around age 15 or 16. Its time for many poor kids to start work. Also, there is also not the amateur baseball infrastructure as you know of it in the United States. Not a lot of high school baseball teams or college teams. Thus, if a kid wants to try a career in baseball, he affiliates with a buscone for training. This is a privatized developmental system, not amateur ball as known in the States. Its more clearly aimed toward making bonus money for the lads and the buscones.
Q: do MLB teams want to sign 16 year olds?
A: Not really.
Their socieities do not want talented athletes to sit around, wasting time, for a few years until they become old enough to sign, by US standards. They prefer that young men get a chance to be hired earlier than in the US, because it is not the US and they may otherwise be wielding a machete to cut sugar cane, rather than a Louisville Slugger.
Q: do players have to sign at 16?
A: Of course not.
The players can sign at 22 or any age above 16, if they want. They have freedom to delay their entry into pro ball as long as they want. They get to choose what they perceive to be in their self-interest. Thats as it should be.
Q: so why do some sign at 16?
A: because they want to do so. They get to live their lives, make their own choices, whether these make sense to American fans or not.
Q: are they all really16?
A: No.
actually there has been pervasive lying about age, because if you can persuade a scout that you are 16, when you are really 20, you can make more money on a signing bonus. This provides economic incentive to mislead. And kids and buscones are not stupid. They know how to play the bonus game. My basic rule of thumb: Latin baseball players are smart enough to live their own lives.
One clarification regarding the essay above: Puerto Rico is not a foreign government. Since circa 1900, it has been an affilate of the United States. Its citizens can vote in US elections (of so I believe, I am not going to look it up). The Dominican Republic or Venezuela, for two instances, are independant nations, whereas Puerto Rico is a US territory, just not a State.
Regarding the paragraph, three under a picture, of course Puerto Rico’s government officials would want their amateur athletes to be liberated from the MLB draft. Why would anyone want their amateur athlete citizens to be subjected to a draft? The purpose of the draft is to reduce bonuses paid to amatuer athletes. So if a government genuinely cares about the wellbeing of its citizens, including amateur baseball players, then it should object to their being subjected to the amateur draft. This only speaks very highly of the Puerto Rican offiicials, who care for their citizens, rather than for Big Business.
It was not long ago that Puerto Rican players were not included in the draft! Maybe they remember the better times in Puerto Rico and aspire again to be Free. Good for them.
Much hinges on the meaning of Jeff Luhnow’s statement that international signings are the “wild, wild West.”
Lets bear in mind, Jeff’s job is to compete in this environment. It is competitive. This year, the Cards won out on the very highly regarded Wagner Mateo (before an injury was discovered). We do NOT know that Jeff dislikes the wildness of the environment. For all we know, Jeff may LOVE this environment. The challenge is to beat other teams and spend money more wisely.
Brian may be a more orderly person. If its “wild”, this may sound worrisome.
A draft is structured to reward (compensate for) LOSING in the majors. The highest picks go to LOSERS. It is not clearly known, at least to poor Jumbo who is always the last to be told, that Luhnow or Bill DeWitt want the Cards to lose, so as to land better foreign talent via an international draft. I had higher expectations of them, but maybe I am naive. Sigh.
Jumbo reminds us that he has a most active imagination. The last time I spoke with Jeff on the subject (and I have multiple times), I am pretty sure he expressed support for an international draft. How many times you have spoken with him?
How many times do I just accept what others wish me to believe? I would hope seldom.
Luhnow represents MLB. It is obligatory for him to offer some kind of praise for MLB’s professed international strategy. He cannot say otherwise. So should I just accept his public views, for the record?
Before advent of the MLB draft, teams spent more on amateur bonuses in the US than on MLB salaries, hard though this is to recall today. It was a time of free for all competition. Very wild. The Cards did well, incidentally. Signed a lot of talent who helped them to success in 1964, 67, 68. Teams adjust to the rules of the competition. I would not shed a lot of tears for the fat cats who own MLB teams. I would let them duke it out, in the wild west. Best for the amateurs. I am generally in supportive to those who play the game.
As a reporter, the duty is to ask Luhnow questions. And to report his answers.
It would seem rude to ask him if he is telling a whopper. I would never wish Brian to do this.
But as a reader, should I accept all the corporate spins or the spins of agents? I dont work for a team or for a player. I must chart a middle course.
We must save them, Jumbo. It stands to reason that the surest way to save a youngster from perdition is to prevent him from selling his only asset to the highet bidder for cash. His family will be most grateful to see the Unicef chopper fly down the street with bags of food flying out the door while he is away serving out his indenture. It is a proven path, well trodden.
Jumbo, yes your on the bench friend………….but you have me worried. Gets some rest. Turn your computer off for a while. We won’t leave.
Puerto Rico has been US territory for 110 years. They get to vote for their Governor and oddly they can vote in US presidential primaries, just not in the general election for President. Unless someone from Puerto Rico moves to one of the 50 States, then they can vote.
The Cards were helped in 1967-68 by the Baby Bull Orlando Cepeda at first base. He was signed by the NY Giants in 1958.
The Cards got of their lazy backsides and signed a few guys in the mid 1960s. Willie Montanez went to the Phils in the Dick Allen trade and played well for them. Jose Cruz (Sr) enjoyed a lot of success after we sent him to the Astros. And then the Cards went back into a slerotic sleep in terms of hustling for talent outside the US.
We picked up Jose Oquendo from the Mets in the 1980s. The Mets were able to get a scout down to Puerto Rico and sign him as a kid.
In the mid to late 1980s, the Texas Rangers woke up and signed catcher Benito Santiago, catcher Ivan Pudge Rodriguez, and Juan Gonazlez, all in Puerto Rico. All free agents ripe for the signing. No need to wait for a draft, just get them signed. Hustle and find the talent.
The Blue Jays woke up and they signed Carlos Delgado. At least the oldest Molina was another UNDFA.
Then MLB extended the draft to this other part of the United States. So a guy like Carlos Beltran became a 2nd rounder, IIRC. Yadier was a 4th round pick by the Cards in 2000, out of high school. Joel Pineiro was up in Florida and about a 12th rounder from a small college program. Felipe Lopez born in PR went about 10th in the nation out of a Florida high school. Another recent Card J-Rod, John Rodriquez is a PR born kid who grew up in New York City; he got passed over in the draft, signing with the Yanks as an UDFA.
We drafted a switch-hitting 2nd baseman out of a Florida State in the first round in the late 1980s and his SS partner in round 5, both Puerto Ricans.
In recent years, teams have been spending more money on Latin American players. My only trip to PR, I was impressed by all the baseball diamonds I could see out the airplane window when flying over San Juan. Baseball must be the leading sport for kids. The Cards almost gave $3M to Wagner Mateo, because he is truly a free agent. However, if Mateo lived in the island of P.R., he would be covered by the draft and would make much less money. So it makes a lot of sense for the Governor to dislike the MLB draft. Its unhelpful for his citizens.
Puerto Rico must be much more educationally advantaged than the Dominican or some other islands. There are high schools and also local colleges. The best ballplayers will get atheletic scholarships from the US.
In recent years, the Cards are being more aggressive in recruiting amateurs out of Puerto Rico. We signed two PR high schoolers back in June, Hernandez and Garcia, southpaw and catcher, plus a Florida juco kid, Jon Rodriguez, PR born.
BB, good comment #2. Yes, we must save the Puerto Rican lads by holding down their signing bonuses. We would not want it to get too wild for them, so they get bonuses so high they do not know what to do with them.
Something that seems not to get enough respect is that the Cards ponied up $1+MM for a 3B out of San Pedro de Macoris in 2008. And this year, until the fiasco with the unknown eye industry, the Cards really went all out and snagged Wagner Mateo for $3.1MM.
Back when the Brewery was running the Cards like General Motors ran Oldmobile, the signing bonus cap on a Dominican was $4,000. That was the PEAK bonus we would pay. This year, we popped about 750 times more money on Mateo.
What does this tell us? The Cards appreciate what Jose Pujols has done for them, the Dominican kid found at a KC juco. Since we are seldom going to outbid much richer teams for an elite veteran free agent, we have to turn up more studs like we once located Albert, in amateur ranks. This is why the Padres, As, and Cards, among others, have esclated bonuses in Latin America.
With bonuses high, the Commissioner wants to suppress the competition among teams by monopolizing assignment of player rights. It probably wont happen, but it would be a shame if it did. It would lower bonuses for foreign athletes by eliminating competiton for their services.
This year, Mateo and Sano were two of the top Dominican talents. If there were a draft, the Cards would not have gotten Mateo. But instead the Cards aggressively went over slot for Shelby Miller in the US and very aggressively to oubid every other team for Mateo. Thats the kind of aggression is needed every year.
[...] Interesting that the owners and the MLBPA may be interested in an international draft [Is the international draft inching closer to reality?]. [...]
A four-part series has begun on MLB.com looking into the details of what it would take to implement an international draft. Not surprisingly, the first installment seems entirely oriented toward the MLB management perspective.
Bud Selig has assigned John Schuerholz to head a study committee. No information was provided as to its membership. If the union isn’t involved up front, which I suspect they are not, it seems a mistake as valuable time could be lost.