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Jeff PassanESPN
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Author of The Hand: Inside the Billion Dollar Secret of Sports’ Most Valuable Commodity.
Former Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz, arguably Dominican baseball’s most prominent figure, says he’s open to the idea of an international draft but dreads going ahead with it until he gets significant input from players past and present.
In a phone call Wednesday with ESPN, Ortiz said the Major League Baseball-proposed project, which has become a flashpoint as the league and the MLB Players Association try to strike a deal to end the MLB player lockout, needs a long runway to materialize. .
“The system in the Dominican [Republic] not ready to have a project next year,” Ortiz said. “The Dominican is not the US. You can’t flick your finger and everything lines up to work in the right direction. We have a new president who is trying to improve the situation. We need to do it slowly.”
MLB has proposed a draft system that will come into effect in 2024. The league will place teams in groups of seven or eight and rotate their positions in the draft to ensure equal access to top amateur talent, with each team picking the top seven or eight once. every four years. The draft will consist of 20 rounds with 600 tough picks, and undrafted players will be able to sign a contract worth no more than $20,000. International picks could be sold.
The league says the draft system will guarantee more money for international talent than the current process, in which international amateurs are free agents who can sign with any team, but are capped by a hard cap that peaked in the 2021-2022 signing class in $6.26. million for eight teams and just $4.64 million for others.
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Players are eligible to join organizations at the age of 16, although teams regularly enter into multimillion-dollar agreements with children aged 12 and 13. kickbacks and coaches giving teenage boys performance-enhancing drugs are some of the main concerns.
Sources told ESPN that support for the international draft among rank-and-file union members is mixed. According to sources, the league tied its implementation to the abolition of direct draft pick compensation, which penalizes teams for signing top free agents.
Between the international draft and the gap that remains between the league and union in the tax thresholds of the competitive balance sheet, multiple issues continue to hold back a deal that would end the lockout, the sources said.
With nearly a third of major league players coming from Latin America, and a large proportion of minor league players coming from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba and other baseball hotbeds, the international market has become a vital part of the game.
Current international free agent signing stars include Shohei Otani, Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, Ronald Acuña Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Jose Ramirez, Jose Altuve, Rafael Devers, Xander Bogarts and many more.
MLB, which has already canceled the first week of games, has told players it will cancel its second week without a deal by Tuesday. After 17 hours of negotiations ending early Wednesday morning, the league agreed to wait for an offer from the MLBPA before canceling another batch of games.
According to a copy of the message obtained by ESPN, in a group chat voice message that went viral in Dominican baseball circles, Ortiz urged others to “lead an active campaign against the draft.”
In a subsequent conversation with ESPN, Ortiz said he understood the potential benefits of the draft but was wary of the consequences. According to him, a longer runway for its implementation will allow the voices of leaders on the ground to be taken into account.
“Busting for time makes more sense,” Ortiz said. “Okay guys, let’s continue at the same pace to make it three to four years from now. We will sit down with the big players. We will listen to what they have to say. If we’re going to do it, let’s get it right. Rush it like it’s not right.
“Baseball is such a big thing in the Dominican Republic. Baseball keeps kids off the streets. We don’t want it to go away. We want it to get better. That’s my goal. Nothing else. We have youth. People. wanting to be me, Pedro [Martinez], [Albert] Pujols. We cannot let this go.
“At the end of the day, I don’t want these kids to be affected. I’ve already played baseball. I had a career. I make sure the children are treated right. but you’re not going to change the system overnight. Baseball is one of the secret weapons of the Dominican economy. If you’re talking draft here in the states, you have a choice. You can play football, basketball. [in the D.R.]. The Dominican has a baseball to get out of here. That’s all. You must be careful.”