Baseball owners proposed banning high school players from signing with major-league teams, raising the age for international amateurs and slashing the money spent on signing bonuses in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement Thursday.
The amateur draft for players residing in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico would be cut from 20 rounds to 12 beginning in 2027 under the proposal Major League Baseball made during a bargaining session with the players’ association. An identical 12-round draft would begin for international prospects, a proposal the union has rejected in the past.
Starting in 2028, a prospect for the amateur draft would have to be at least 20 years old by Sept. 1 of his signing year and two years removed from the graduating year of his high school class — a restriction that also would eliminate players who completed their first year of junior college.
The amateur draft started in 1965; high schoolers have been eligible along with college players who are in or have just finished their junior years.
Raising the signing age would likely lead to players being older when they become eligible for free agency, which currently requires six years of major-league service.
MLB cited increased revenue in college baseball as reasoning. In addition, MLB said 75% of high schoolers signed from 2012-19 did not reach the major leagues.
“Expanded scholarships, NIL opportunities, revenue sharing and significant investments in facilities and player development have made college baseball an increasingly important pathway that is producing major league-ready talent at an accelerated rate,” MLB said in a statement. “By creating a draft system centered around college-aged players and making most college players eligible one year earlier, more players will benefit from both a college education and an elite development environment while reaching professional baseball — and ultimately the major leagues — more quickly.”
MLB said it will not seek to reduce the 120 minor-league teams in the top four levels when it negotiates new professional development licenses in 2030 to replace expiring 10-year deals.
For international amateurs, the age to sign would be raised to 18 on Sept. 1 of their signing year, up from 17.
Each separate draft would have $200 million in signing pools in 2027. There would be hard caps for each draft.
Teams would be able to trade draft picks, but a club couldn’t trade its first-round pick in consecutive drafts. A team couldn’t acquire more than three additional selections in the first three rounds.
Spending on signing bonuses for players eligible for the 2025 amateur draft totaled about $402 million and signing bonus pools for 2026 increased by 2.5%.
Each team would have the same amount to spend under the proposal rather than the current system which gives higher pools to teams with poorer records in the previous year. The Pittsburgh Pirates are at just over $19 million this year and the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at slightly under $4 million. Teams can currently go over their pools and often do as much as 5%.
Teams have spent about $193 million on signing bonuses for international amateurs in 2026. The current signing period runs from Jan. 15 to Dec. 15 each year, but the initial international draft would be no earlier than September 2027 and no later than March 2028.
MLB proposed eliminating competitive balance round picks that began in 2023 and cutting the draft lottery that started in 2023 from the top six picks to four.
Bargaining began May 13 and the sides exchanged initial proposals two weeks later as management proposed a salary cap for the first time since 1994, which resulted in a 7 1/2-month strike and the first cancellation of the World Series in 90 years.
Reporting by The Associated Press.