The Major League season is not quite ready to get underway, as the league, its owners, and the Players’ Association are still trying to figure out how to make a 2020 campaign work. This might lead to more fans tuning into the First-Year Player Draft, which takes place later this week. Unlike the other four major sports in the US (yes, I include MLS) with annual drafts, MLB holds theirs smack dab in the middle of the season. There is good reason for this, but it leads to the draft getting lost in the shuffle for most fans who would rather watch games than see their teams pick players who might not ever suit up for the big league club.
So what should someone expect from this year’s draft? First, it was shortened from 40 rounds to just five. A cap was set at $20,000 for signing bonuses allowed for undrafted players. There are other minor details involved, but you’ll be seeing a lot of players that would have normally been drafted and signed this year return to college or enroll in a college. The top talent will still be drafted early and most likely signed, but draft classes could end up looking significantly different.
I’m not an expert on the draft, so once again I called on two DRB writers, Brad Neveu and JT Morgan, that have much more experience than I do at evaluating these prospects and predicting how drafts will pan out. In the episode, we dissect potential prospects that the Rays will look at in the first round. A lot of our discussion is based off of mocks done here on the site.
Brad and JT Rays their voices about the impact the shortened draft will have on not only the players, but the organizations as well.
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