We are truly in an unprecedented era of sports, as every major American sport outside of the NFL has seen their annual schedule paused indefinitely. The ramification of such a drastic change to the norm is leaving many questions how the business of these multi-billion dollar corporations can eventually resume operations.
One of the potential scenarios that Major League Baseball is considering, amidst all this uncertainty, is to cancel this year’s amateur draft.
According to the Associated Press, the idea of skipping the draft would be to save money after the great losses the league will sustain due to playing a shortened season. Along with skipping the draft, the MLB may look to push back their next international signing period as well.
The 2020 MLB Draft was supposed to take place in Omaha, Nebraska in June, ahead of the College World Series. Now the College World Series has been cancelled and the draft could be cut too.
According to the AP, MLB teams collectively pay nearly $400 million in signing bonuses to amateur players after the draft. Those funds could be used to make up for the losses in tickets sales, broadcast and sponsorship contracts.
As of now, there is no telling what the cancellation of the draft would mean for players that the NCAA may not allow to return to college for another year of eligibility, or even high school players that weren’t planning on attending college in the first place.
Another big dispute that the MLB is trying to resolve right now is how to handle the service time of their current players. The MLBPA is pushing for every player to be credited with a full season, regardless of if any games are played or not. Major League Baseball is contending that players should only be credited with 130 games or something more proportional to a shortened season.
All of these issues aren’t even taking into account the more pressing matter of trying to figure out how to pay their workforce right now, with the season likely to be suspended for months on end. The MLB could issue advances to the players currently on 40-man rosters, while also taking care of their minor league players with allowances similar to what they receive in spring training.
The business of Major League Baseball has clearly been turned upside-down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Right now there are far more questions than answers.
