Minor-league baseball — the dreams it inspires, the smaller cities that embrace it and the talent it develops for major-league teams — is undergoing seismic changes.
The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating that change.
News broke Friday that Major League Baseball will cut its 2020 amateur draft from 40 rounds to just five. There were hopes that the draft would be reduced to 10 rounds, not five, but the owners’ desires won out. Eliminating the sixth through 10th rounds will save teams a combined $29,578,100 — but that’s only a savings of about $1 million per team.
Many front-office officials across MLB objected to the plan, and many general managers and player-development personnel argue that the draft offers a solid bang for the buck over the long haul.