Van Horn on Impact of MLB Draft in July for Razorbacks, College Baseball
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It's just not okay to have the MLB Draft in July. Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn minced no words about that. It seemed like such an innocent move at the time. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced that starting in 2022, the first-year draft would be held in July as a part of All-Star Weekend in an effort to create a bigger buzz around the event.
The MLB draft has often dwarfed in coverage compared to its NFL and NBA counterparts, ESPN only picked up coverage of the first round in for the first time in 2020. The move made perfect sense at the time, how could the league not take advantage of the single biggest influx of talent into the minor leagues and make a spectacle out of the process?
Two years later, the move looks to have created a headache for everybody. On top of reporting from The Athletic in 2022 that the new draft positioning was wreaking havoc around the trade deadline, the change is also being felt at the college level.
Van Horn made it very clear the impacts moving the draft had on the sport, changing from July to the traditional spot after the Super Regional in June had on the sport.
"Mid-July is not okay [for the MLB draft]," Van Horn said on a coaches call previewing the upcoming College Baseball Series. "I get it. Hoopla, the All-Star game, but these kids want to know where they're drafted. They want to get their career started. I don't think there are too many organizations that don't want to get their players out there playing. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It's tough on college coaches."
Arkansas had all three of its top 50 prospects sign with MLB teams according to Perfect Game, and multiple others including Gabe Gaeckle, Hunter Dietz, and Ryder Helfrick could have really left Van Horn scrambling if they had opted to sign also. With less than two months before the start of fall ball from the draft, it could put coaches in a very sticky situation.
"The draft being in mid-July is a problem," Van Horn said.
"The numbers don't add up if enough kids don't sign. You've got to have enough to compete in our league [the SEC]. It's a tough pull. We need more time to get our rosters squared away."
For the here and now, Arkansas was still able to sign six of the Perfect Game national top 100 to help them in its 2024 campaign, which gets underway 3 p.m. Feb. 16 against James Madison. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
HOG FEED:
MUSSELMAN MUST GUIDE ARKANSAS THROUGH ITS OWN NCAA TOURNAMENT NOW
VAN HORN EXPLAINS HOW NATIONAL SUCCESS ACHIEVED AT ARKANSAS
HOW ARE THE RAZORBACKS DOING WITHOUT TREVON BRAZILE'S PRESENCE
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