Slashing MLB Draft to Five Rounds May Save Cash, but at What Cost?
Even before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic changed everything, Major League Baseball was looking for a way to change minor league baseball.
It was evident the last couple of seasons that they wanted to cut costs by cutting teams.
With the advent of COVID-19, however, MLB is trying to take it much further. The plan now is to reduce the Major League draft from 40 rounds to five. Any player not drafted in those five rounds is a free agent, eligible to sign for a maximum of $20,000.
It may be a way to save money. It’s not necessarily cost-effective, however. Those are two different things. Just looking at the Oakland A’s, 14 of the men on the 40-man roster were taken after the fifth round.
Here’s a look at the players drafted from the sixth round on, players who might have slipped through the cracks and players who almost certainly would be elsewhere if the draft had been limited to five rounds when these players were eligible:
--Marcus Semien. The A’s shortstop, who finished third in the Most Valuable Player voting last year, was a sixth-round pick out of Cal in 2011. He’s been a star since his 27-homer season in 2016 and last year he hit .289 with 33 homers and 92 RBI while playing every game.
--Mike Fiers. The probable opening day A’s starter, if ever there is an opening day in 2020, Fiers was a 22nd- round pick out of small Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. in 2009. Despite the lack of street cred, he was in the big leagues by 2011 for a couple of games, and the next year he was a regular in the Brewers’ rotation. He went 15-4 for the A’s last year.
--Khris Davis. He came out of baseball factory Cal State Fullerton as a seventh-round pick of the Brewers in the same draft in which Milwaukee chose Fiers. Despite being a much higher draftee, it took Davis an extra two years to make it to the big leagues, where he’s become one of the game’s best power hitters. In four years as a left fielder and DH, he’s hit 156 homers, an average of 39 per season.
--Ramon Laureano. The Dominican-born Laureano played collegiate baseball at Northeast Oklahoma A&M and was drafted by the Astros in the 16th round in 2014. By 2016 he had made himself into a prospect both offensively and defensively. But by 2017 it became clear a loaded Astros outfield had no room for him. He came in a trade to the A’s, where he made immediate noise with a powerful right arm in center field. Last year he hit 24 homers despite missing 39 games, almost one-quarter of the season.
--Chris Bassitt. The right-hander pitched for the University of Akron before being selected by the White Sox in the 16th round in 2011. Three years later he joined the White Sox rotation, and a year after that he came with Semien from Chicago to the A’s in the deal that sent starter Jeff Samardzija to the White Sox. Last year he went 10-5 with 3.81 ERA in a career-best 25 starts.
--Mark Canha. He played with Semien at Cal and was drafted in 2010 by the Marlins as their seventh-round pick. The Marlins couldn’t figure out a way to keep him on their 40-man roster for the 2015 season, so they arranged a deal with the A’s as a Rule 5 player. Rule 5s have to play all year in the big leagues, and Canha did that well in 2015 with 124 games, 16 homers and 70 RBI. He’s been a regular run producer as an outfielder and DH, and last year showed himself to be a capable center fielder while hitting 26 homers and driving in 58 runs.
They aren’t alone. Other non-top-5 draftees on the A’s roster include pitchers Jake Diekman (20), Burch Smith (14), Lou Trivino (11) and J.B. Wendelken (13), infielder Vimael Machin (10) and outfielders Seth Brown (19), Dustin Fowler (19) and Robbie Grossman (18).
We’ll never know where the A’s would be now if the five-round draft had been part of the landscape for the last decade or more, but it seems a good bet they wouldn’t be coming off back-to-back 97 wins seasons.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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