David Ortiz, Fernando Tatís Jr. Come Out Strong Against MLB International Draft

As negotiations between the MLB’s owners and the MLBPA continue, the possibility of the league instituting an international draft has become a fairly significant issue on the table. On Wednesday, a pair of baseball superstars from the Dominican Republic—incoming Hall-of-Fame inductee David Ortiz and Padres slugger Fernando Tatís Jr.—railed against the idea.

Per Dominican baseball reporter Héctor Gómez, Tatís told El Caribe that an international draft would “kill baseball” in the Dominican Republic.

“It’s going to affect us a lot, because there will be many young people who used to give them the opportunity to get a bonus and with the draft it will not be the same,” Tatís added, per Gómez.

Ortiz, one of the most beloved players in recent MLB history, has reportedly been extremely active in coming out against the concept of an international draft in Dominican player circles, and spoke to ESPN’s Jeff Passan about his concerns with rapid implementation of these changes.

Passan shared Ortiz’s thoughts to Twitter:

“The system in the Dominican is not ready to have a draft next year. The Dominican is not the U.S. You can’t snap a finger and everything lines up to operate the right way. We’ve got a new president who’s trying to improve things. We need to do this slowly…

“Taking time — that makes more sense. OK, guys, let’s keep up this pace to do it three, four years from now. We sit down with the big-time players. We listen to what they have to say. If we’re going to do it, let’s do it right. Rushing it like this is not right...

“Baseball is such a big thing in the Dominican. Baseball keeps kids off the streets. We don’t want that to walk away from us. We want it to get better. That’s my focus. Nothing else. We have the youth. People wanting to be me, Pedro [Martínez], [Albert] Pujols. We can’t let that go away...

“At the end of the day, I don’t want those kids to be affected by it. I already played baseball. I had a career. I care about the kids being treated right. I understand MLB wants to have control over everything they do, but you’re not going to change the system overnight...

“Baseball is one of the secret weapons of the Dominican economy. If you talk about a draft here in the states, you have choices. You can do football, basketball. You don’t have choices. Dominican has baseball to make your way out. That’s it. You have to be careful.”

On Wednesday afternoon, MLB insider Ken Rosenthal said the draft proposal is a “non-starter” with Latin players, as negotiations between the two sides continue.  

As currently constituted, MLB’s Rule 4 draft only covers high school and college players from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Rules for players from the rest of the world have evolved significantly over the last few years, but baseball’s owners likely see a full international draft as a way to cut down costs even further.

According to MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince, the league’s current proposal includes a 20-round draft with more than 600 picks, with guaranteed signing bonus slots, up to $5.25 million for the top pick. 

“The International Draft would have more fairly allocated talent among the clubs, and reduced abuses in some international markets,” commissioner Rob Manfred said earlier this month.

The current system places a hard cap on international player spending by teams after a previous bonus pool effectively served as a soft cap for teams. Prior to 2012, international prospects were free agents, leading to significant bidding wars for some top talent across the globe.

The system’s current rules, however, aren’t enforced as stringently as possible. While players cannot sign with teams until they are 16, the system is rife with abuse, with teams entering into verbal agreement with players as young as 12 through relationships with street agents and trainers. The MLB has penalized teams for avoiding the current cap on international spending, with the 2017 Braves scandal serving as a notable example.