MLB orders scouting blackout to give high school baseball players a winter break

New Amateur Recovery Period bans pro clubs from attending amateur games Oct. 15-Jan. 15, shifting spotlight off winter showcases and onto player health

West Potomac High School pitcher Austin Dean during the 2024 Perfect Game National Showcase high school baseball game at Chase Field. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The scouts will have to stay home this winter.

Major League Baseball has unveiled its first-ever Amateur Recovery Period, a policy that bars clubs from scouting or collecting on-field data from amateur players during designated off-season months.

For high school players, the blackout runs Oct. 15 through Jan. 15; for college players, it stretches from Nov. 15 through Jan. 15. The league says the goal is simple – give young athletes a true offseason and cut down on the injury risks tied to year-round competition.

Because the blackout falls largely in the winter months – after many fall events and well before the spring and summer showcase calendar – the ban is unlikely to halt summer travel ball or the high-visibility showcases that drive much recruiting and scouting. But it will sharply curtail professional club presence at late-fall and winter showcases that historically provided exposure and measurement opportunities for rising seniors and underclassmen.

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Why MLB acted: injury trends and the league’s study

MLB has been tracking a steady rise in throwing-arm ailments among pitchers and released a comprehensive review last winter that identified higher pitch velocities, increased maximal-effort throwing and year-round competitive schedules as important contributors.

That report and subsequent public summaries call out amateur pitching workloads and the pressure created by showcases and constant exposure. MLB framed the Amateur Recovery Period as one actionable step that follows the findings of that study.

Mukwonago's Adam Kudronowicz fires a pitch during a 2025 game. / Mukwonago Tribe Baseball Club

Independent medical literature and injury-surveillance studies back up the concern about shoulder and elbow problems at the high-school level. Recent peer-reviewed work estimates that shoulder pathology accounts for roughly 13–21% of baseball injuries in high school populations and that elbow pathology is a significant share as well – with pitchers representing a disproportionate share of those cases.

Those studies have been cited in both medical and baseball-industry discussions about workload, rest and long-term health.

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What this means for late-fall and winter showcases

Several national organizers run fall and early-winter showcase circuits that straddle the Oct.-Jan. window. With clubs and third-party data aggregators barred from in-person evaluation and on-field data collection during the recovery period, those events will likely see fewer MLB scouts in the stands and less access to club-sanctioned measurement.

That could shift the balance of exposure toward earlier fall events, winter video highlights captured before the blackout, or spring and summer showcases after the recovery period lifts. MLB’s announcement makes plain the league expects third-party data providers to be covered by the same restrictions.

USA 15U National Team manager Casey Scott (29) speaks with his pitcher on the mound during a USA Baseball 15U game. / USA Baseball

Here are some popular Perfect Game showcases that fall inside or overlap with the recovery period dates for high school and college players. Note: It is unclear how, or if, these showcases will be impacted or altered.

Showcase Name	Date(s)	Location
PG California Prospect Showcase	Oct. 18-19, 2025	Orange County Great Park, Irvine, CA
PG Fall Top Prospect National Showcase	Oct. 18-19, 2025	Irvine, CA
PG High School All State Select Championship (28-29 Grads)	Oct. 18-19, 2025	Tomball, TX
PG Lone Star Showcase	Nov. 8-9, 2025	Hurst, TX
PG National South Showcase	Nov. 1-2, 2025	Tomball, TX
PG Uncommitted Main Event Showcase (2026 grads)	Dec. 29-31, 2025	Fort Myers, FL

These events typically draw scouts, recruiters and third-party data providers; under the new policy they will occur, but MLB club personnel will be barred from in-person evaluation and data-collection on site during those dates for high school players.

As of now, Perfect Game has not issued a formal statement regarding MLB’s Amateur Recovery Period. The organization’s official site and media channels do not reference the policy, and no verified quotes from officials or representatives have been published. Perfect Game has, however, long emphasized arm care and injury prevention for high school pitchers, offering guidance on recovery, pitch limits, and conditioning.

Jul 1, 2024; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Middleton High School pitcher Ian Lenius during the Perfect Game National Showcase high school baseball game at Chase Field. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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Are college coaches allowed to scout during the recovery period?

Short answer: it depends – and NCAA recruiting calendars matter.

NCAA recruiting rules operate on a sport-specific calendar of contact, evaluation, quiet and dead periods. For Division I baseball, the 2025-26 recruiting calendar shows a long quiet period that begins Oct. 13 and runs through Feb. 28, 2026, with these exceptions:

Period	Dates	Notes
Quiet Period	Oct. 13, 2025-Feb. 28, 2026	No in-person recruiting off high school campuses; only on-campus contact.
Dead Periods within Quiet Period	Nov. 10-13, 2025; Nov. 25-30, 2025; Dec. 22-27, 2025; Jan. 8-11, 2026	Stricter: no in-person on- or off-campus; no evaluations.
Other Contact Periods	Aug. 1-17, 2025; Sept. 12-Oct. 12, 2025; Mar. 1-July 31, 2026 (with some dead-period exceptions)	These are windows when college programs can attend off-campus showcases and evaluations.

That means for much of the same span that MLB’s recovery policy applies, NCAA rules also limit or prohibit college coaches from off-campus recruitment or evaluation of high school players.

There are narrow periods in November and December when recruiting is fully shut down under NCAA rules, which would leave players particularly without outside observation or evaluation in those windows.

What coaches, players and families should consider

For prospects counting on late-fall or winter in-person exposure, the new MLB policy – together with the NCAA calendar – makes planning vital. Players who rely on late-calendar events for velocity readings, bullpen video and direct-to-scout exposure may need to:

• prioritize earlier-fall events that fall before Oct. 15;

• ensure high-quality video and verified measurement data are captured before blackout dates; or

• lean into winter strength-and-conditioning and arm-care programs they can perform independently to preserve health and improve spring performance.

MLB’s recovery window is a policy experiment intended to balance exposure and safety – but its ultimate test will be whether it reduces amateur pitching injuries without creating new inequities in access to scouting. For many high school players, the policy offers a forced winter breather; for college and pro evaluators, it reshuffles when and how they evaluate the country’s top amateur talent.

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