MLB Draft
Encyclopedia
The First-Year Player Draft, also known as the Rule 4 Draft, is Major League Baseball
's primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players, from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs, to its teams. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick. In addition, teams which lost free agent
s in the previous off-season may be awarded "compensatory" picks.
The first amateur draft was held in 1965. Unlike most sports drafts, the First-Year Player Draft is held mid-season, in June. Another distinguishing feature of this draft in comparison with those of other North American major professional sports leagues is its sheer size: the 2006 draft lasted 50 rounds and 1,503 players were selected. In contrast, the NHL Entry Draft
lasts seven rounds and roughly 215 picks, the NBA Draft
lasts for only two rounds (60 selections) and the NFL Draft
for only seven rounds (256 selections if no picks are forfeited).
The First-Year Player Draft has historically had far less media exposure than its counterparts in the other leagues for three primary reasons:
The 2007 Draft
was televised live for the first time in the draft's history on Thursday June 17, 2007 from 2:00pm until 6:00pm EDT
(1800 - 2200 hrs UTC). The Draft coverage took place at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Florida
.
held the first amateur draft in professional sports. A decade later, the National Basketball Association
instituted a similar method of player distribution. However, the player draft was controversial. Congressman
Emanuel Celler
questioned the legality of drafts during a series of hearings on the business practice of professional sports leagues in the 1950s. Successful clubs saw the draft as anti-competitive. Yankees executive Johnny Johnson equated it with communism
. At the same time, Pulitzer Prize
-winning sports columnist Arthur Daley compared the system to a "slave market."
Prior to the implementation of the First-Year Player Draft, amateurs were free to sign with any Major League team that offered them a contract. As a result, wealthier teams such as the New York Yankees
and St. Louis Cardinals
were able to stockpile young talent, while poorer clubs were left to sign less desirable prospects.
In 1947, Major League Baseball implemented the bonus rule
, a restriction aimed at reducing player salaries, as well as keeping wealthier teams from monopolizing the player market. In its most restrictive form, it forbade any team which gave an amateur a signing bonus of more than $4,000 from assigning that player to a minor league affiliate for two seasons. If the player was removed from the major league roster, he became a free agent. The controversial legislation was repealed twice, only to be re-instituted.
The bonus rule was largely ineffective. There were accusations that teams were signing players to smaller bonuses, only to supplement them with under-the-table payments. In one famous incident, the Kansas City Athletics signed Clete Boyer
, kept him on their roster for two years, then traded him to the Yankees just as he became eligible to be sent to the minor leagues
. Other clubs accused the Yankees of using the Athletics as a de facto farm team, and the A's later admitted to signing Boyer on their behalf. Finally, it was the bidding war for Rick Reichardt
, who signed with the Los Angeles Angels
for the then outrageous bonus of $200,000 that led to the implementation of the draft.
Major League clubs voted on the draft during the 1964 Winter Meetings
. Four teams — the New York Yankees
, St. Louis Cardinals
, Los Angeles Dodgers
, and New York Mets
— attempted to defeat the proposal, but they failed to convince a majority of teams, and in the end only the Cardinals voted against it.
and American League
s. With the first pick, the Kansas City Athletics took Rick Monday
, an outfielder
for Arizona State University.
Originally, three separate drafts were held each year. The June draft, which was by far the largest, involved new high school graduates, as well as college seniors who had just finished their seasons. A second draft was held in January for high school and college players who graduated in the winter. Finally, there was a draft in August for players who participated in amateur summer leagues. The August draft was eliminated after only two years, while the January draft lasted until 1986.
Early on, the majority of players drafted came directly from high school. Between 1967 and 1971, only seven college players were chosen in the first round of the June draft. However, the college players who were drafted outperformed their high school counterparts by what statistician Bill James
called "a laughably huge margin."
In 1978, a majority of draftees had played college baseball, and by 2002, the number rose above sixty percent. While the number of high school players drafted has dropped, those picked have been more successful than their predecessors. In a study of drafts from 1984 to 1999, Baseball Prospectus
writer Rany Jazayerli
concluded that, by the 1990s, the gap in production between the two groups had nearly disappeared.
outfielder
Rick Reichardt
was given a record bonus of $205,000 ($ today) by the Los Angeles Angels
. Without competition from other clubs, the Athletics were able to sign Rick Monday for a bonus of only $104,000. It would take until 1979 for a drafted player to receive a bonus higher than Reichardt's.
Player salaries continued to escalate through the 1980s. In 1986, Bo Jackson
became the first draftee to sign a total contract (signing bonus and salary) worth over $1 million ($ today). Jackson, a Heisman Trophy
-winning football
player for Auburn University
, was also the first overall choice in the National Football League Draft
, and was offered a $7 million ($ today) contract to play football for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
.
High school players possessed additional leverage, as they had the option of attending college and re-entering the draft the next year. Agent Scott Boras
routinely exploited this advantage to increase the contracts of his clients. In 1990, Boras client Todd Van Poppel
signed a $1.2 million ($ today) contract with Oakland Athletics
, after committing to play for the University of Texas
. The following year, Boras negotiated a $1.55 million ($ today) contract for Yankees
first round pick Brien Taylor
, who had said he would attend junior college if he didn't receive a contract equal to Van Poppel's. By June 2009, a figure as high as $15 million was floated for collegian pitcher Stephen Strasburg
.
Increasingly, teams drafted based on whether or not a player was likely to sign for a particular amount of money, rather than on his talent. This became known as a "signability pick." Before the 1992 draft, team owners unilaterally decided to extend the period of time a team retained negotiating rights to a player from one year to five. In effect, the rule prohibited a high school draftee from attending college and re-entering the draft after his junior or senior seasons. The Major League Baseball Players Association
filed a legal challenge, but Major League Baseball argued that, since the Players Association did not represent amateur players, it was not necessary for the union to agree to the change. An arbitrator ultimately decided that any change to draft articles must be negotiated with the Players Association.
A player who is eligible to be selected and is passed over by every club becomes a free agent and may sign with any club, up until one week before the next draft, or until the player enters, or returns to, a four-year college full-time or enters, or returns to, a junior college. In the one-week period before any draft, which is called the "closed period", the general rule is that no club may sign a new player.
based on their previous two years of playing, and against players of similar positions. Players are categorized as either Class A or Class B, or they fall into the category of all other players. Below is a description of each free agent class and the compensation the free agent's former team received when the player signs with a different team.
• A Class A free agent is ranked in the top 20 percent of players at his position. A team that signs a Type A player gives its top draft pick to the club that the player is leaving; that club also receives a supplemental pick in the "sandwich"
round between the first and second rounds.
• A Class B free agent is ranked below the top 20 percent but in the top 40 percent of players at his position. A team that loses a Type B player receives a supplemental pick, but the signing team does not lose a pick.
• All other players carry no compensation at all. There had previously been a third class of "Type C" players, but that was eliminated in the most recent CBA.
To earn a compensatory pick, a free agent must either be signed before the arbitration deadline in early December, or be offered arbitration by their former team but still sign with someone else.
Compensatory picks that one team gives another via this method are the highest available pick that team has, with the exception of picks in the top half of the first round. These picks are protected from being used as compensation. If a team that picks in the top half of the first draft signs a Type A free agent, they would give up their second round pick. If a team owes two other teams draft picks via Type A free agents, the team whose departing player had a higher score gets the higher ranked pick. A team cannot lose picks it has earned via compensation.
The order of the supplemental round between the first and second rounds is determined by inverse order of the previous year's standings. All the Type A picks are done first, and then the order resets for all the Type B compensation picks.
Teams can also earn compensation for unsigned picks from the previous year's draft. If a team doesn't sign a first or second round pick, they will get to pick at the same slot plus one the following year. For example, if the team with the #5 pick does not sign that player, they would have the #6 pick the following year. The regular draft order would continue around those picks. For compensation for not signing a third round pick, teams would get a pick in a supplemental round between the third and fourth rounds. If a team fails to sign a player with one of these compensated picks, there is no compensation the following year.
After the 2012 draft, free agents will no longer be classified by "type". Instead, a team will only be able to receive compensation if it makes its former player an offer at least equal to the average of the 125 richest contracts. However, if a player is traded during the final season of his contract, his new team will be ineligible to receive any compensation.
in other sports. Also, the date for signing new picks moves from mid-August to mid-July.
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
's primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players, from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs, to its teams. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick. In addition, teams which lost free agent
Free agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....
s in the previous off-season may be awarded "compensatory" picks.
The first amateur draft was held in 1965. Unlike most sports drafts, the First-Year Player Draft is held mid-season, in June. Another distinguishing feature of this draft in comparison with those of other North American major professional sports leagues is its sheer size: the 2006 draft lasted 50 rounds and 1,503 players were selected. In contrast, the NHL Entry Draft
NHL Entry Draft
The NHL Entry Draft is an annual meeting in which every franchise of the National Hockey League systematically select the rights to available amateur ice hockey players who meet draft eligibility requirements...
lasts seven rounds and roughly 215 picks, the NBA Draft
NBA Draft
The NBA Draft is an annual event in which the thirty teams from the National Basketball Association can draft players who are eligible and wish to join the league. These players are usually amateur U.S. college basketball players, but international players are also eligible to be drafted...
lasts for only two rounds (60 selections) and the NFL Draft
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
for only seven rounds (256 selections if no picks are forfeited).
The First-Year Player Draft has historically had far less media exposure than its counterparts in the other leagues for three primary reasons:
- High school and college baseballCollege baseballCollege baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. Compared to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a less significant contribution to cultivating professional players, as the minor leagues primarily...
, the primary sources of MLB draftees, are not nearly as popular as college footballCollege footballCollege football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
, college basketballCollege basketballCollege basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
, and, in Canada and certain parts of the U.S., college and junior hockey. Consequently, most prospective top draft picks were unknown to the casual sports observer at the time of their draft. However, this is slowly changing: NCAANational Collegiate Athletic AssociationThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
baseball has enjoyed a spike in popularity in the 2000s and top collegiate baseball players have enjoyed greater media exposure, though still far below their basketball and football counterparts. - Unlike top draft picks in the NHLNational Hockey LeagueThe National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
, NBANational Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
and NFLNational Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, all of whom are expected to make immediate impacts, top MLB draftees are nearly always assigned to the minor leaguesMinor league baseballMinor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
for several years to hone their skills. The entire 2007 first round (64 players) totaled one inning of major league playing time as of the end of the 2008 season; as of the 20092009 in baseball-Major League Baseball:*Regular Season Champions*World Series Champions – New York Yankees**American League Champions – New York Yankees**National League Champions – Philadelphia Phillies*Postseason – October 7 to November 4...
season, the vast majority of 2008 first-rounders were still assigned to minor league organizations. In contrast, every first-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft2008 NFL DraftThe 2008 NFL Draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on April 26 and April 27, 2008. For the 29th consecutive year, ESPN televised the draft; the NFL Network also broadcast the event, its third year doing so...
had played in the league by the end of the 2008 season2008 NFL seasonThe 2008 NFL season was the 89th regular season of the National Football League, themed with the slogan "Believe in Now."Super Bowl XLIII, the league's championship game, was at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on February 1, 2009, with the Pittsburgh Steelers coming out victorious over the...
. - While many NHL, NBA and NFL draftees will eventually reach their respective leagues, the vast majority of players selected in the First-Year Player Draft will never play in a single MLB game, including many first-rounders. For example, only 31 of 53 first-round draft picks in the 1997 draft eventually made a big-league appearance, and only 13 of those 30 appeared in more than 100 games as of . In 1997's sixth round, only five of the 30 players selected eventually made a big league appearance, and only two of those five (Tim HudsonTim HudsonTimothy Adam Hudson is a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who plays for the Atlanta Braves. Hudson began his major league career with the Oakland Athletics and played his last two years of college eligibility at Auburn University...
and Matt WiseMatt WiseMatthew John Wise , is a former right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher.Wise was drafted in the sixth round of the draft. He made his major league debut on August 2, with the Anaheim Angels. He was released by the Angels in and signed with the Milwaukee Brewers...
) played more than 40 innings in the majors. Further illustrating the unpredictability of the draft's middle and later rounds, none of the 30 players selected in the 18th round ever reached the major leagues, but the 19th round eventually produced an all-starMajor League Baseball All-Star GameThe Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers...
and World SeriesWorld SeriesThe World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
MVP, David EcksteinDavid EcksteinDavid Mark Eckstein is a former American professional baseball player who was an infielder in Major League Baseball for ten seasons. He played college baseball for the University of Florida, and has played professionally for the Anaheim Angels, St. Louis Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays, Arizona...
.
The 2007 Draft
2007 Major League Baseball Draft
The 2007 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft was Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, and was held on June 7 and June 8, 2007...
was televised live for the first time in the draft's history on Thursday June 17, 2007 from 2:00pm until 6:00pm EDT
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
(1800 - 2200 hrs UTC). The Draft coverage took place at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
.
Before the draft
Major League Baseball has used a draft to assign minor league players to teams since 1921. In 1936, the National Football LeagueNational Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
held the first amateur draft in professional sports. A decade later, the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
instituted a similar method of player distribution. However, the player draft was controversial. Congressman
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Emanuel Celler
Emanuel Celler
Emanuel Celler was an American politician from New York who served in the United States House of Representatives for almost 50 years, from March 1923 to January 1973. He was a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life:...
questioned the legality of drafts during a series of hearings on the business practice of professional sports leagues in the 1950s. Successful clubs saw the draft as anti-competitive. Yankees executive Johnny Johnson equated it with communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. At the same time, Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning sports columnist Arthur Daley compared the system to a "slave market."
Prior to the implementation of the First-Year Player Draft, amateurs were free to sign with any Major League team that offered them a contract. As a result, wealthier teams such as the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
and St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...
were able to stockpile young talent, while poorer clubs were left to sign less desirable prospects.
In 1947, Major League Baseball implemented the bonus rule
Bonus Rule
The Bonus Rule was a rule instituted by Major League Baseball in 1947 that prevented teams from assigning certain players to farm clubs. The rule stipulated that when a Major league team signed a player to a contract in excess of $4,000 , the Major League team was required to keep that player on...
, a restriction aimed at reducing player salaries, as well as keeping wealthier teams from monopolizing the player market. In its most restrictive form, it forbade any team which gave an amateur a signing bonus of more than $4,000 from assigning that player to a minor league affiliate for two seasons. If the player was removed from the major league roster, he became a free agent. The controversial legislation was repealed twice, only to be re-instituted.
The bonus rule was largely ineffective. There were accusations that teams were signing players to smaller bonuses, only to supplement them with under-the-table payments. In one famous incident, the Kansas City Athletics signed Clete Boyer
Clete Boyer
Cletis Leroy "Clete" Boyer was a Major League Baseball player.A third baseman who also played shortstop and second base occasionally, Boyer played for the Kansas City Athletics , New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves...
, kept him on their roster for two years, then traded him to the Yankees just as he became eligible to be sent to the minor leagues
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
. Other clubs accused the Yankees of using the Athletics as a de facto farm team, and the A's later admitted to signing Boyer on their behalf. Finally, it was the bidding war for Rick Reichardt
Rick Reichardt
Frederic Carl Reichardt was a Major League outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels/California Angels , Washington Senators , Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals...
, who signed with the Los Angeles Angels
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, United States. The Angels are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The "Angels" name originates from the city in which the team started, Los Angeles...
for the then outrageous bonus of $200,000 that led to the implementation of the draft.
Major League clubs voted on the draft during the 1964 Winter Meetings
Winter meetings
The Baseball Winter Meetings are an annual event, held each December, attended by representatives from all 30 Major League Baseball organizations, more than 160 minor league baseball teams, various league offices, companies associated with baseball and guests from international baseball-playing...
. Four teams — the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
, St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to...
, Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
, and New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
— attempted to defeat the proposal, but they failed to convince a majority of teams, and in the end only the Cardinals voted against it.
The draft
Major League Baseball's first amateur draft was held in June 1965. Teams chose players in reverse order of the previous season's standings, with picks alternating between the NationalNational League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
and American League
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...
s. With the first pick, the Kansas City Athletics took Rick Monday
Rick Monday
Robert James "Rick" Monday, Jr. is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball and is currently a broadcast announcer. From 1966 through 1984, Monday, a center fielder for most of his career, played for the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics , Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers...
, an outfielder
Outfielder
Outfielder is a generic term applied to each of the people playing in the three defensive positions in baseball farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder...
for Arizona State University.
Originally, three separate drafts were held each year. The June draft, which was by far the largest, involved new high school graduates, as well as college seniors who had just finished their seasons. A second draft was held in January for high school and college players who graduated in the winter. Finally, there was a draft in August for players who participated in amateur summer leagues. The August draft was eliminated after only two years, while the January draft lasted until 1986.
Early on, the majority of players drafted came directly from high school. Between 1967 and 1971, only seven college players were chosen in the first round of the June draft. However, the college players who were drafted outperformed their high school counterparts by what statistician Bill James
Bill James
George William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics...
called "a laughably huge margin."
In 1978, a majority of draftees had played college baseball, and by 2002, the number rose above sixty percent. While the number of high school players drafted has dropped, those picked have been more successful than their predecessors. In a study of drafts from 1984 to 1999, Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Prospectus is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well player and team performance projections on the site...
writer Rany Jazayerli
Rany Jazayerli
Rany Jazayerli , a Chicago-area dermatologist, is a co-founder of and writer for Baseball Prospectus. He developed the statistical concept of Pitcher Abuse Points , which relates to high pitch counts in baseball....
concluded that, by the 1990s, the gap in production between the two groups had nearly disappeared.
Economic impact
Initially, the draft succeeded in reducing the value of signing bonuses. In 1964, a year before the first draft, University of WisconsinUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
outfielder
Outfielder
Outfielder is a generic term applied to each of the people playing in the three defensive positions in baseball farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder...
Rick Reichardt
Rick Reichardt
Frederic Carl Reichardt was a Major League outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels/California Angels , Washington Senators , Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals...
was given a record bonus of $205,000 ($ today) by the Los Angeles Angels
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, United States. The Angels are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The "Angels" name originates from the city in which the team started, Los Angeles...
. Without competition from other clubs, the Athletics were able to sign Rick Monday for a bonus of only $104,000. It would take until 1979 for a drafted player to receive a bonus higher than Reichardt's.
Player salaries continued to escalate through the 1980s. In 1986, Bo Jackson
Bo Jackson
Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson is a former American baseball and football player. He was the first athlete to be named an All-Star in two major American sports, and also won the Heisman Trophy in 1985....
became the first draftee to sign a total contract (signing bonus and salary) worth over $1 million ($ today). Jackson, a Heisman Trophy
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...
-winning football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player for Auburn University
Auburn Tigers football
Only Mohamed Amin Abughadir set the record with 1,890 yards in 1 season. He was the QB for Auburn in 1998.The Auburn Tigers football team represents Auburn University in college football as a member of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, competing in the Western Division of the...
, was also the first overall choice in the National Football League Draft
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft is an annual event in which the National Football League teams select eligible college football players and it is their most common source of player recruitment. The basic design of the draft is each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order...
, and was offered a $7 million ($ today) contract to play football for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football franchise based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League – they are the only team in the division not to come from the old NFC West...
.
High school players possessed additional leverage, as they had the option of attending college and re-entering the draft the next year. Agent Scott Boras
Scott Boras
Scott Boras is an American sports agent, specializing in baseball. He is the founder, owner and president of the Boras Corporation, a sports agency based in Newport Beach, Calif. that represents roughly 175 professional baseball clients, including many of the game's highest-profile players...
routinely exploited this advantage to increase the contracts of his clients. In 1990, Boras client Todd Van Poppel
Todd Van Poppel
Todd Matthew Van Poppel is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Oakland Athletics , Detroit Tigers , Texas Rangers , Pittsburgh Pirates , Chicago Cubs , and Cincinnati Reds...
signed a $1.2 million ($ today) contract with Oakland Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
, after committing to play for the University of Texas
Texas Longhorns baseball
The Texas Longhorns baseball team represents The University of Texas at Austin and competes in the Big 12 Conference of NCAA Division I.The Texas Longhorns are the winningest program in college baseball history in terms of win percentage with .740 and ranks second all-time in total wins to the...
. The following year, Boras negotiated a $1.55 million ($ today) contract for Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
first round pick Brien Taylor
Brien Taylor
Brien M. Taylor is a former pitcher in minor league baseball best known for being just the second amateur player to be picked first overall in the Major League Baseball Draft and never reach the major leagues...
, who had said he would attend junior college if he didn't receive a contract equal to Van Poppel's. By June 2009, a figure as high as $15 million was floated for collegian pitcher Stephen Strasburg
Stephen Strasburg
Stephen James Strasburg is a right-handed pitcher for the Washington Nationals, who selected him with the first pick in the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft...
.
Increasingly, teams drafted based on whether or not a player was likely to sign for a particular amount of money, rather than on his talent. This became known as a "signability pick." Before the 1992 draft, team owners unilaterally decided to extend the period of time a team retained negotiating rights to a player from one year to five. In effect, the rule prohibited a high school draftee from attending college and re-entering the draft after his junior or senior seasons. The Major League Baseball Players Association
Major League Baseball Players Association
The Major League Baseball Players Association is the union of professional major-league baseball players.-History of MLBPA:The MLBPA was not the first attempt to unionize baseball players...
filed a legal challenge, but Major League Baseball argued that, since the Players Association did not represent amateur players, it was not necessary for the union to agree to the change. An arbitrator ultimately decided that any change to draft articles must be negotiated with the Players Association.
Eligibility
To be drafted a player must fit the following criteria:- Be a resident of the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, or a U.S. territoryInsular areaAn insular area is a United States territory, that is neither a part of one of the fifty U.S. states nor the District of Columbia, the federal district of the United States...
such as Puerto RicoPuerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
. Players from other countries are not subject to the draft, and can be signed by any team (unless they are current members of college teams in the aforementioned countries). - Have never signed a major or minor leagueMinor league baseballMinor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
contract. - High school players are eligible only after graduation, and if they have not attended college.
- Players at four-year colleges are eligible after completing their junior years, or after their 21st birthdays.
- JuniorJunior collegeThe term junior college refers to different educational institutions in different countries.-India:In India, most states provide schooling through 12th grade...
and community collegeCommunity collegeA community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries.-Australia:Community colleges carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around mid 19th century when evening classes were held to help adults...
players are eligible to be drafted at any time.
Draft order
The general draft order is the reverse order of the previous year's standings. If two teams finish with identical records, the previous year's standings of the two teams is the tiebreaker, with the team having a worse record receiving the higher pick.Negotiating rights
Prior to 2007, a team retained the rights to sign a selected player until one week prior to the next draft, or until the player enters, or returns to, a four-year college on a full-time basis. Starting in 2007, the deadline for signing a drafted player is August 15. A selected player who enters a junior college cannot be signed until the conclusion of the school's baseball season. A player who is drafted and does not sign with the club that selected him may be drafted again at a future year's draft, so long as the player is eligible for that year's draft. A club may not select a player again in a subsequent year, unless the player has consented to the re-selection.A player who is eligible to be selected and is passed over by every club becomes a free agent and may sign with any club, up until one week before the next draft, or until the player enters, or returns to, a four-year college full-time or enters, or returns to, a junior college. In the one-week period before any draft, which is called the "closed period", the general rule is that no club may sign a new player.
Compensatory picks
Currently, teams can earn compensatory picks in the draft based on departing free agents. Free Agents are ranked by the Elias Sports BureauElias Sports Bureau
The Elias Sports Bureau is an American company that provides historical research and statistical services in the field of professional sports.In 1913, Al Munro Elias and his brother Walter established the Al Munro Elias Bureau in New York City...
based on their previous two years of playing, and against players of similar positions. Players are categorized as either Class A or Class B, or they fall into the category of all other players. Below is a description of each free agent class and the compensation the free agent's former team received when the player signs with a different team.
• A Class A free agent is ranked in the top 20 percent of players at his position. A team that signs a Type A player gives its top draft pick to the club that the player is leaving; that club also receives a supplemental pick in the "sandwich"
Sandwich Pick
Sandwich pick is a term for a type of draft pick awarded to Major League Baseball teams for the loss of free agents who meet the minimum requirements by the Elias Rankings...
round between the first and second rounds.
• A Class B free agent is ranked below the top 20 percent but in the top 40 percent of players at his position. A team that loses a Type B player receives a supplemental pick, but the signing team does not lose a pick.
• All other players carry no compensation at all. There had previously been a third class of "Type C" players, but that was eliminated in the most recent CBA.
To earn a compensatory pick, a free agent must either be signed before the arbitration deadline in early December, or be offered arbitration by their former team but still sign with someone else.
Compensatory picks that one team gives another via this method are the highest available pick that team has, with the exception of picks in the top half of the first round. These picks are protected from being used as compensation. If a team that picks in the top half of the first draft signs a Type A free agent, they would give up their second round pick. If a team owes two other teams draft picks via Type A free agents, the team whose departing player had a higher score gets the higher ranked pick. A team cannot lose picks it has earned via compensation.
The order of the supplemental round between the first and second rounds is determined by inverse order of the previous year's standings. All the Type A picks are done first, and then the order resets for all the Type B compensation picks.
Teams can also earn compensation for unsigned picks from the previous year's draft. If a team doesn't sign a first or second round pick, they will get to pick at the same slot plus one the following year. For example, if the team with the #5 pick does not sign that player, they would have the #6 pick the following year. The regular draft order would continue around those picks. For compensation for not signing a third round pick, teams would get a pick in a supplemental round between the third and fourth rounds. If a team fails to sign a player with one of these compensated picks, there is no compensation the following year.
Changes for 2012
The adoption of a new collective bargaining agreement between MLB and its players union, starting with the 2012 season, will result in significant changes to the draft.Free agent compensation
For the 2012 draft, the current "Type A" and "Type B" designations remain in place, but the CBA included special provisions that modified the statuses of 11 players who were Type A free agents under the old CBA. Six of these will be "Modified Type A"—meaning that the signing team does not forfeit a draft pick, but the player's former team will receive a compensatory pick in the same position it would have earned under regular Type A rules. The remaining five will be "Modified Type B", with compensation identical to that for other Type B free agents.After the 2012 draft, free agents will no longer be classified by "type". Instead, a team will only be able to receive compensation if it makes its former player an offer at least equal to the average of the 125 richest contracts. However, if a player is traded during the final season of his contract, his new team will be ineligible to receive any compensation.
Bonus pool
Starting in 2012, each team will be allocated a "bonus pool" from which it can offer initial contracts to its drafted players. Each team's pool will be based on its draft position and number of picks, plus the amount spent in the previous year's draft. For the 2012 draft, these pools will range from $4.5 million to $11.5 million. If a team goes over its threshold by 5 percent or less, it must pay a "luxury tax" of 75% on the amount over the threshold. Teams that go 5 to 10 percent over must pay a 100% tax on the excess, and will lose their next first-round pick. A team that goes 15 percent over can lose its next two first-round picks, in addition to the "luxury tax". These excess picks will go to smaller-revenue teams via a yet-to-be-reported formula. Uniquely, these compensatory picks can be traded—marking the first time MLB has allowed trading of draft picks. However, the current rules against trading of regular picks, or picks awarded as free agent compensation, will remain in force.Other changes
Teams will no longer be able to offer major league contracts to their draft choices—only minor league contracts will be available. The only exception will be for drafted players who have scholarshipsAthletic scholarship
An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport...
in other sports. Also, the date for signing new picks moves from mid-August to mid-July.