Hundreds of undrafted players face waiting game

They sat anxiously by their phones, computers and TVs, hoping to hear their names called by big league teams.

Instead, the waiting continues for hundreds of young baseball players.

Major League Baseball’s amateur draft wrapped up Thursday night, shaved to only five rounds from the usual 40 because of the coronavirus pandemic — a move that figures to save teams about $30 million (U.S.). So, instead of more than 1,200 players celebrating the start of their professional careers, only 160 can do so right now.

For the rest, they must carefully weigh their options. And, so do teams.

“In terms of the post-draft signings, it’s going to be different,” said David Stearns, the Milwaukee Brewers general manager and president of baseball operations. “There are probably going to be all sorts of different mechanics in play there and market forces in play that we haven’t seen in the past.”

Major-league clubs are scouring their draft boards and scouting reports while trying to identify the best of the remaining talent around the country.

“The fact we were only able to scout four college weekends and the high school kids, many of whom we didn’t see in their spring seasons, it’s difficult,” said Paul Toboni, the Boston Red Sox director of amateur scouting. “There’s a lot more uncertainty than there would be in a normal spring.”

Instead of the typical free-forall immediately after the draft when teams race to add undrafted players to fill out their minor-league squads, the conclusion of this year’s event included a few important caveats.

For one, teams must wait until Sunday to start negotiating with and signing players not taken in the draft.

“I’m sure it will be crazy a little bit on Sunday and we’ll see how quickly things move from there,” Brewers scouting director Tod Johnson said, “but I definitely think it’ll be probably an exciting Sunday.”

As part of the March 26 agreement between MLB and the players’ association, teams are permitted to sign an unlimited number of undrafted players. But, clubs are limited to offering maximum signing bonuses of only $20,000.

“It’s not ideal, but every team across baseball is being hurt by this on a number of levels,” Baltimore Orioles general manager Mike Elias said of the shortened draft. “It’s not fun that we can’t continue to add players to the system beyond the fifth round. We feel like we’re good at picking late. Last year, we took a number of pitchers on the second day of the draft and really bolstered our system. So we’re just not getting that.

“We’re going to try to sign as many kids as we can after the draft.”

The very best of those undrafted players, though, could also opt to hold off on starting their professional careers. While MLB commissioner Rob Manfred insisted before the draft began Wednesday night that playing a big league season this year is “100 per cent” going to happen, the status of the minor-league season remains uncertain. Hundreds of minor-leaguers were recently released by major-league organizations to cut costs. So, the prospect of not having anywhere to play in the pros anytime soon could alter some undrafted players’ plans.