Major League Baseball is back, but the International Draft remains a divisive and unsolved problem

While Major League Baseball and the approximately 1,200 players rejoiced over the return of the American pastime on Thursday – the end of a 99-day lockdown after the team’s 30 owners and union agreed on a new labor deal – i negotiations were nearly torpedoed in the 11th hour.

The league tried to bolster an international draft as part of the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), but instead the matter has been raised, for now, and the Players Association has until the end of July to decide whether or not an international draft. it should be implemented, starting in 2024.

But baseball commissioner Rob Manfred and the owners have received quick backlash from players regarding the league’s negotiating tactics on that front.

“I was in Florida. We never offered the International Draft, “tweeted New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer, a member of the union executive subcommittee, referring to the week-long bargaining session in Jupiter, Florida, which ended without a new deal. CBA. “We discussed it, but the MLB told us they would NOT offer anything in return. At that point, we informed all the players and decided not to accept the draft. This is the MLB that muddies the waters and diverts the game. guilt.

Scherzer’s Mets teammate, shortstop Francisco Lindor, another member of the union executive subcommittee, also blew up the league: “The (Players Association) kept us informed of the MLB’s proposals, even as the league he said the project was worth nothing and some clubs don’t even want it.

Now that a new five-year CBA is in place, however, the debate and discussion will not subside on one of the most irritating issues within the sport and one that has its equal share of supporters and critics. In talented baseball countries like the Dominican Republic, for example, busconi, or street agents, thrive on training and representing young prospects, with the hope that the player will get a profitable deal with a major league club.

An international draft would likely end that section of baseball business across Latin America, and critics of the draft argue that it is a form of salary cap, which the Players Association has historically opposed in any form. Currently, potential amateur customers from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico are subject to the draft.

“On the side of the buscones and baseball (academy) owners here in the Dominican Republic, they don’t want the international project to be implemented,” said a longtime Dominican scout who has worked for several major league clubs. “But personally I think this crazy system needs to be organized here.”

The “crazy system” the scout refers to is the wild west culture that has existed for years in the Dominican Republic and throughout Latin America, where a litany of problems plagues sport: everything from fraud to age / paper identity; the purchase of performance-enhancing drugs is legal in the Dominican Republic; and Latin baseball prospects of just 12 and 13 making verbal deals with major league clubs, only to see scouting directors or team officials reneged on some of those deals.

Under the collectively bargained rules of baseball, international amateur free agents can sign with a major league team and be eligible for a signing bonus when they are 16. But the pressure can increase for player development staff to find the next superstar talent, which in turn can cultivate corrupt practices and unethical behavior – busconi o bonus skimming of coaches or team managers; teams that withdraw from verbal agreements with potential clients, leaving children and their families in financial distress.

In a 2020 USA Today Sport report, Rudy Santin, a Cuban-born baseball scout who had spent a lifetime in baseball – working for the Yankees, Giants and Rays before opening a baseball academy in Dominican – was quoted as saying he contacted baseball officials and even federal authorities on the problem of underage purchases in an effort to try to make changes for the better.

“They say, ‘Thanks for the information.’ That’s all they say, ”Santin said in USA Today report, referring to the response Santin said he received from baseball officials when he expressed concern about shady deals. “They don’t say anything else.”

Santin died on May 3, 2020, a month before USA Today report was published.

Prior to his death, according to the report, Santin said he also met with FBI agents who were investigating MLB’s Latin American operations and said he had been asked to record conversations with MLB team officials. It is unclear whether federal agents are still investigating MLB in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or elsewhere in Latin America. The FBI Miami Field Office did not respond to an email request.

Santin said in the USA Today report that two of the potential Dominican candidates he was coaching had reached verbal agreements with the San Diego Padres, only to see the team later withdraw from those agreements. One such player is Cristian Garcia, who is now in the Angels farm system.

“It was devastating to say the least,” said Cristian’s father, Miguel, in USA Today history, referring to the alleged lost agreement with the Padres. “Because (we) had made a lot of plans based on this.”

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In a recent interview, Miguel Garcia said Cristian, now 17, had signed with the Angels last year and played in the 2021 Dominican Summer League, where he beat .232 in 45 games and played mostly at first base. Miguel Garcia said his son should play in the Angels’ minor league system this year, but did not specify at what level.

MLBPA did not respond to a comment email. Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred did not raise any questions about the international draft at his press conference following the announcement that a new CBA had been agreed upon by both sides. But baseball sources say an international project would go a long way in addressing irregularities in the baseball business in Latin America.

Already in 2016 Manfred supported its implementation.

“My point of view – and it has been this point of view for a long time – is that sooner or later it would be better if players, no matter where they come from, come into play through the same kind of system, and that’s a rough draft. system, “Manfred in Arizona said during spring training in 2016.” It will be a topic that we will be spending time on with MLBPA over the next year. “

But Eddie Dominguez, a former MLB investigator at the League’s Investigative Department founded in 2008, said the unit, when it was a member, not only recommended the implementation of an international draft, but that there was plenty of evidence that the DOI found supporting the need for change in that area of ​​sport.

“The DOI’s work internationally was probably the most important thing we did,” said Dominguez, who along with many other DOI members was fired from baseball in 2014. “We broke into PEDs (drugs that improve performance), but we also shed a light on how corrupt the baseball business was internationally. This was the best thing we did, it was to bring these issues to light. The best thing that could happen to baseball would be an international draft, if you care about children and their families being treated badly. “

A baseball insider said the union should have accepted an international draft during the last CBA negotiations in 2016, but instead made concessions by placing a salary cap on the international pool money.

“The union fought (the project) last time, a lot to them (to their detriment),” the insider said. “The union made a mistake: a draft was the least important gift.”

Newly elected Baseball Hall of Fame member David Ortiz, the former Red Sox slugger, told ESPN last week that an international draft is not an issue that should be ignored anywhere.

“At the end of the day, I don’t want those guys to be affected. I’ve already played baseball. I’ve had a career, “Ortiz told ESPN.” I care about children being treated well. I understand that MLB wants to be in control of everything they do, but you’re not going to change the system overnight. Baseball is a of the secret weapons of the Dominican economy. If you talk about a draft here in the US, you have choices. You can play football, basketball. You have no choices. [nel DR]. Dominican has baseball to get out of it. That’s all. You have to be careful. “