The MLB Draft: EXPLAINED
Our Handy Guide to the MLB Draft
What is the MLB Draft? How does it work? What to look out for including the ups and the downs of the draft.
If you are a European football fan, the Major League Baseball Draft is an unknown concept. Find out what it means for American baseball.
One facet of American sports that differs wildly from the traditional European sports is the draft process. The draft is where teams pick from a pool of high school and university players and bring them into their organisation to build their youth programme.
This might be an alien concept to European football supporters, for example, as we are accustomed to players being spotted by scouts when they are around 10 or 11 (or even younger) and being invited to train with their local club and progress through the various age groups until the time comes that they are released. Or some even get signed to a professional contract.
So how does the Major League Baseball draft actually work?
How the MLB Draft Process Works
The draft process is where baseball organisations take it in turns to pick from the talent pool one after the other, starting with the team with the worst record from the previous season, and each round finishing with the team with the best record.
When a player is drafted, the organisation and player then negotiate a deal and the player can either accept and embark on his pro-baseball career, starting in the Minor Leagues, or refuse and try entering the draft the next year and secure a better deal. They can also hope to get signed by their boyhood club.
The control of who you get to play for as a young man is very limited- if you get selected and you want a pro-career, you probably want to sign. If you mess a team around, you may gain a reputation that you can’t shake.
The worst Number 1 picks in MLB draft history!
Key Differences between Major League Baseball and European Sports
Young baseball players are often well known before they get anywhere near the MLB
MLB teams do not have player academies
There is quite a difference in how young players progress between Major League Baseball and European sports.
In European football you move up through the age groups, hopefully gaining a positive reputation amongst your contemporaries for your ability, but the average fan is unlikely to know a lot about the next superstars coming through when they are 16 or 17- even if they are representing their country at youth levels.
It’s not until players reach the first team that their stardom, fame, and reputation amongst fans starts to blossom.
In American baseball, this is very different.
Young men play at varying levels in high school or college, but these are high-quality levels of baseball, often attended by thousands of fans, and by the time the draft comes around some of these boys are national superstars.
Remember, they haven’t even signed a pro-contract yet, and yet their names are plastered all over MLB.com and ESPN, national sports shows will be dedicated to the draft and all baseball commentators will be talking about them.
The Downsides of the Major League Draft
Young baseball players in America are often seen as heroes before they have done anything.
Much pressure is put on young players
By the time the draft comes around, most average MLB fans will have heard of the top 5 most likely picks, if not the top 20. There will be draft rankings and these boys will be gratuitously promoted, ranked, and listed like commodities.
I cannot imagine what this does to the mental state of a teenager, being ranked amongst his peers so publicly, seeing his face plastered on all these shows and having his technical flaws and upsides graded, ranked, and dissected by commentators and former superstars of the game.
The pressure must be immense. And this is before a multi-million dollar signing bonus is reached. For example, 2020s number one pick, Spencer Torkelson, signed with the Detroit Tigers for $8.4 million- not bad for 20 years old. Remember that this is also a very complex time of life for your average young man.
Number one picks don’t always pan out like Alex Rodriguez, Bryce Harper, Gerrit Cole, Chipper Jones, Carlos Correa and Adrian Gonzalez.
There have been some notable failures who reached the big leagues, but have produced a negative WAR (Bryan Bullington [drafted by Pirates in 2002], Matt Anderson [Tigers, 1997] and Shawn Abner [Mets, 1984]), and then there are the guys who never made the Majors.
Huge outlay, massive investment (in time and money) and they never made an appearance in The Show, where pressure and mental well-being must have played a part in their demise, as well as injuries or mis-projected scouting reports.
Steven Chilcott was the first in 1966. Drafted by the Mets, it was injuries that meant Chilcott never lived out his dream. To rub more salt in the wound, MLB slugging legend Reggie Jackson went second in the draft that year.
In 1991, Brien Taylor was selected number 1 by the Yankees and only had seven Minor League seasons after he injured his shoulder in an off-field altercation and never recovered to fulfil his potential.
Mark Appel, drafted number one in 2013, was seen as part of the Astros rebuild but he only survived in the Minors until 2018 before retiring after not fulfilling his potential and a string of injuries leading to a trade to the Phillies.
He had been the 8th pick of 2012, but decided to return to college for his senior year rather than sign for Pittsburgh, so he was clearly highly thought of.
Astros number one pick woes had a second consecutive year when in 2014 Brady Aiken didn’t sign with the Astros after health and signing disagreements led to him being the first number one pick not to sign since 1983.
Aiken was then drafted by Cleveland in 2015 but his career had already petered out, being one of the most high-profile draft disasters.
The Upsides of the MLB Draft
The real upside to the draft process is that it helps level the playing field and stops one organisation from hoarding young talent (take note Barcelona, Manchester City, and Chelsea).
If you do stockpile prospects, you have to give something up for it via a trade. We see elite football clubs ‘buying’ up lots of young talent and dominating the recruitment in their geographical area.
In MLB, if you have a few bad years, you are going to get some top picks in the draft, then you wait for them to blossom and hopefully make you competitive again.
This is the process that many small market teams go through, a cycle of several awful seasons for hopefully the reward of two or three golden seasons- before it all gets ripped down again and you start the cycle over again.
The Kansas City Royals are a good example of how an organisation can go through this cycle- lots of losing seasons but then they made back-to-back World Series, losing in 2014 and winning it in 2015. Over the last decade, the Astros are an example of this (try to ignore the ringing of trash cans in your ears) where they openly said they would be terrible for a few years but have a plan.
They loaded up on lots of young talent such as Correa, Bregman, and Springer with the draft and it has all come together (cheating aside).
The MLB Draft Through the Decades
The approach to the draft and what teams are looking for has changed in the last couple of decades, and I think this is good for the game.
Small market teams are looking to gain an advantage by improving their scouting network, what they are looking for, how they operate their analytics, and then how they develop players. But these secrets stay secrets for only a short period.
Everyone is now jumping aboard the same methods and seeing success. But that will now force teams to exploit other weaknesses in the game and think differently again- another game to play.
The first MLB amateur draft took place in 1965, with Rick Monday being the first ever player selected in the draft process. He was taken by the Kansas City Athletics (who became the Oakland Athletics), signing for $104,000. In 2021, the draft took place in Denver, at the time and location of this year’s All-Star game.
Although this is a nice touch and an exciting event, I think it ironically underlines my point that these boys are given ‘All-Star’ billing before they’ve thrown a pitch or swung a bat even down at Low-A level baseball.
The 2021 MLB Draft
The 2021 draft consisted of 20 rounds, which was due to COVID, as there are normally 40+ rounds. The first-round pick highlights from this year include:
The Pirates’ terrible year in 2020 has at least yielded them taking the number one pick, catcher Henry Davis. Not regarded as the number one prospect on the list by many but certainly considered the top catcher due to his defensive abilities and his hitting power
Vanderbilt right-handed pitcher Jack Leiter was considered the number two prospect and number one pitcher on the draft board and the Texas Rangers selected him as their first-round pick, number two overall.
Widely considered to be the number one prospect on the list, high-school shortstop Marcelo Mayer was actually taken fourth by the Boston Red Sox. A disciplined, contact hitter, Mayer was felt to be the best hitter on the board and the Sox changed their approach when Leiter was taken by the Rangers. Not a bad back-up being able to take Mayer, hopefully, his admiration for Yankees legend Derek Jeter won’t be held against him when he makes it to Fenway!
The situation that catches the eye from the 2021 draft was that the LA Angels selected 20 pitchers out of 20 rounds. Every selection they had, they took a pitcher. I wrote about the LA Angels previously, suggesting they could be a dangerous team if they sorted their pitching staff out and they have a frightening attack- and who would have thought that Shohei Ohtani would be the most lethal of them all. But they lack so much in terms of pitching that they have been light years away from threatening the post-season.
I argued that the LA Angels could have picked up a few mid-range, experienced starters for relatively little money, but that didn’t happen. So now they have gone to extremes to resolve the situation. They needed pitching, no doubt.
To the detriment of taking zero hitters in the draft. That might not be the wisest decision. It seems they are trying to prove a point, but it feels a bit like the petulant child- all or nothing.
The other downside to this is that none of these pitchers are immediately ‘big league’ ready. So if the Angels are serious about a World Series ring they still need to trade or go big in free agency soon for a couple of decent pitchers as Trout, Ohtani, Rendon, and Fletcher won’t be superstars forever.
I cannot write about the MLB 2021 draft without mentioning Max Muncy who was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the first round. That doesn’t seem so odd, but it does when you consider that LA Dodgers current superstar infielder, Max Muncy, was also drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 2012 draft. Both infielders, same name- and drafted by the same organisation. And what is even stranger is that they share the same birthday- August 25th. You can’t make this stuff up.
The MLB Draft: Conclusion
Love or hate the draft system and love or hate the superstar status given to these boys, it’s an exciting game within a game. The MLB draft attempts to level the playing field and it has seen organisations change their approach to the game and analytics.
Personally, I like the system, it’s just a shame so much pressure is heaped on the players.
