Major League Baseball has once again proposed an international draft as part of its negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement, sources told ESPN on Thursday, painting it as a push to provide structure for an increasingly unruly and corrupt system.
MLB's international draft would be restricted to players who are at least 18 years old, as opposed to 16 under the current system. It would consist of 12 hard-slot rounds, with an initial signing bonus pool totaling $200 million for 360 amateur players residing outside the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, according to sources.
The pitch was part of a wider MLB proposal pertaining to amateur players, one that includes drastic cuts -- from around $360 million to $200 million -- for those coming through the traditional, U.S.-based draft. It comes three weeks after owners formally proposed a salary cap, a major point of contention for the MLB Players' Association that is widely expected to trigger another prolonged lockout.
Four years ago, MLB and the MLBPA didn't engage in talks around an international draft until the late stages of what was ultimately a 99-day lockout. A new CBA was ratified on March 10, 2022, but the two sides gave themselves until July 25 of that year to agree on what amounted to a swap -- an international draft in exchange for the abolishment of the qualifying offer system that has long hamstrung major league free agents. But the deadline came and went without an agreement, largely over the size of the signing-bonus pool.
MLB's proposal then called for 20 rounds, encompassing 600 amateur players, for $191 million, $69 million short of the MLBPA's last counter. MLB's initial pitch in this round of bargaining would bring the number of drafted players down significantly but keep the total money close to what it will be this year (the 30 teams' bonus pools in 2026 add up to $208,114,700, though a league official noted that teams traditionally spend roughly 97% of their allotted amount).
"It is long past time to reform the international amateur system in ways that would address longstanding challenges and benefit future players," MLB said in a statement on Thursday. "The enhanced transparency of the International Draft that we are proposing is a common-sense step forward that best addresses the root causes of corruption in the current system. Our vision for the new international system reduces the pressure on young athletes by giving them the chance to grow and develop, keeps kids in school longer while they pursue a career in baseball, and creates more playing opportunities for the older players who are left behind in today's system."
Under MLB's international draft proposal, an unlimited number of undrafted players can sign for a maximum of only $10,000 each, while also getting a $30,000 bonus upon graduating to a full-season minor league affiliate. The first draft would take place at some point between the fall of 2027 and the early part of 2028, and players would have to turn 18 years old no later than Sept. 1, 2028. For subsequent drafts, a player would have to be 18 by Sept. 1 of their draft year.
The current system essentially sets the minimum age a year earlier -- but those restrictions have long been ignored. For several years, sources said, teams have been striking illegal handshake agreements with players as young as 10 and 11 years old, especially in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, triggering a dangerous series of outcomes.
The pressure to make kids seem more projectable at uncommonly young ages has prompted an uptick in steroid use and falsified birth documents. The increased overhead at independent training facilities has prompted the presence of predatory loan sharks that take up to an additional 20% of a player's eventual signing bonus, on top of the 30% to 50% already taken by trainers. And because the gap between when players agree to handshake deals and formally sign contracts has grown so wide, teams have been pulling out of those agreements more frequently.
MLB has long been adamant that the unpredictability of a draft would eliminate those early handshake agreements and thus root out a lot of the corruption associated with them. By targeting older players, MLB hopes kids will attend school rather than train full time at academies at an early age. And by limiting the number of rounds, MLB says the best players will attain larger signing bonuses.
But the MLBPA at large has long seen an international draft as yet another ploy by owners to control costs and eliminate free markets, arguing that if MLB truly wanted to eliminate corruption in the international amateur system, it should have punished the teams that so clearly engage in those illegal pre-deals and put more resources into on-the-ground investigations of the other issues associated with them. MLB's counter, especially lately, is that the corruption -- especially in the Dominican Republic, where every team has built academies and many have major scouting presences -- has become too deep-seated to adequately police.
Under its latest proposal, MLB pitched an expansion of its amateur scouting league to include scouting and development for draft-eligible players, providing them with housing, meals and educational programs. MLB also plans to introduce an international scouting and medical combine for the top 300 international prospects each year, similar to what is currently done under the draft combine. MLB added that it would work with the Dominican government to introduce a code of conduct for independent trainers and implement a lifetime ban for any person who provides amateurs with performance-enhancing drugs.
The current international market spans most of the year, from Jan. 15 to Dec. 15, though most of the signings are announced on the first day or two because those contracts have essentially been agreed to years in advance.