Indians set for five-round MLB draft June 10-11

This year, more than ever, the Indians and the 29 other teams in Major League Baseball will have to do their best to make sure they don’t swing and miss during the amateur draft.

Normally the draft is 40 rounds, but in 2020, the draft scheduled for June 10 and 11 is limited to five rounds because of fallout from the novel coronavirus.

The Indians have six picks — 23, 36, 56, 95, 124 and 154.

The 36th pick will be made in the Competitive Balance Round A portion of the draft.

Players that would normally be drafted in the final 35 rounds will become free agents. No one from that group can be signed until 9 a.m. June 14, Indians scouting director Scott Barnsby said on a Zoom conference June 2.

The undrafted players can be paid a maximum of $20,000. For many, going to or returning to college and hoping to be drafted in the future is a better option, as tempting as that $20,000 might be to an 18-year-old high school graduate.

“That gives the players the opportunity to opt out and let Major League Baseball know they don’t want 30 teams calling them,” Barnsby said. “Once we get to that point, for us as an organization, we have spent time and will continue to

spend time determining if there are any players we want to target and eventually sign. It’s not a freefor-all, but it could be challenging to teams wanting to sign players after the draft.’

CBSSports.com has the Indians selecting righthanded pitcher Jared Kelly from Refugio High School in Texas with the 23rd pick.

“Kelley was seen as a possible top-10 pick at times,

though his Trackman data (spin rate, etc.) is not as impressive as some other top prep arms, so he’s slipping down draft boards,” Mike Axisa wrote in his scouting report. “The Indians develop pitching as well as any organization and Kelley would be a great get this late in the first round.”

MLB.com has the Rays taking Kelly 24th and the Indians taking Ohio State

catcher Dillon Dingler 23rd.

“Home state product Dingler offers better athleticism and defense than most catchers, and he improved offensively this spring,” the MLB.com scouting report says. “If he goes earlier, a college right-hander could be the fallback plan.”

Barnsby won’t give any clues on whether he is targeting a high school or college player, a pitcher or a position

player with the first pick. He said the Indians started preparing for the 2020 draft as soon as the 2019 draft ended. This year was difficult for all teams, though, because for many players there was no baseball because of COVID-19.

“Our hearts go out to the players that missed their season this year,” Barnsby said. “There were some challenges there, but overall

we felt we were in a pretty good spot heading into the spring. Then I was blown away the last few weeks by the depth of information that we had during meetings — not only the on-field evaluation but also the guys spending more time getting to know the players and people throughout baseball.”

Barnsby said he and all teams will conduct the draft remotely.