Minnesota Twins: MLB Draft Shortened to Five Rounds
With the likely shortening of the MLB season, the MLB Draft will also be cut to only five rounds. How does this effect the Minnesota Twins?
The 2020 Major League Baseball Draft, the primary way of players entering the minor leagues will be drastically shortened to five rounds due to the MLB’s suspension from COVID-19. Last year’s draft had forty rounds and 1,217 players selected, including 30 picks by the Minnesota Twins. ESPN’s Jeff Passan was one of the first to report:
The 2020 Major League Baseball draft will be five rounds, sources tell @kileymcd and me. All players who go undrafted would be eligible to sign for a maximum of $20,000. While there was a proposal to the union for a 10-round draft, the sides didn’t come to an agreement.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 8, 2020
This is a huge drop-off from the normal numbers of the draft and could have a huge impact on the league. Minor League Baseball, minor league players, young draft prospects, all three groups already devastated by the effects of COVID-19 are hurt the most by this, as less new talent can enter the league.
Because of this, players may not ever be drafted and could end up losing a chance at their lifelong dream. There’s a feeling that the teams could have worked to find a solution to at least reach ten rounds. This is causing a lot of frustration and disappointment:
There is a lot of disappointment from amateur players, front offices, scouting circles -- really everywhere -- in the decision to limit the 2020 draft to five rounds, and it comes down to this: The slot values for Rounds 6-10 total $29,578,100. That's less than $1 million a team.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 8, 2020
How does this effect the Minnesota Twins? To put simply, it hurts. Signing Josh Donaldson cost the Twins their third-highest pick in the draft as part of the competitive balance rules in the league. Now the team made the right call signing Donaldson, as a former MVP is always better than a third round pick. Their draft pick chest does look a little bare:
With only five rounds in the 2020 MLB draft, here’s what the #MNTwins have to work with:
— Ted (@tlschwerz) May 8, 2020
Rnd 1- 27
Rnd 2- 59
Rnd 4- 99
Rnd 5- 125
That’s it...
Again, the Twins are in the process of competing so draft picks aren’t priority number one, and they can sign other players for up to $20,000 if they so choose, but for a team that builds through the draft, this could hurt in the future.
On the bright side, the draft remains on June 10th, so we will get a baseball event soon. Unfortunately, it will be a lot shorter than expected.
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