MLB to Small Town America: Drop Dead

I think we're heading for a future in which the MLB teams keep only the players under contract who are playing major league baseball right then -- and a reserve stockpile of maybe a couple more players at each depth chart position.
After that, they'll let players develop on independent teams, then purchase or sign them as the need arises.
MLB teams will still draft some players straight out of HS, but very very few - those golden prospects will be intensively developed at the team complexes.
The other guys -- the replacement level players, the average-starter players -- will develop on their own on independent teams.
The independent teams will sign players to muck lower salary contracts for periods of 2-4 seasons, then sell off the contracts of better prospects to MLB franchises.

 

Has scouting changed to the point where in-person evals are less relevant than stat lines? I could see MLB keeping tabs on the "affiliate leagues" for post-grad players and if a player starts lighting it up there, are they free agents?

 

Well, here's a complete spitball plan -- all figures are pulled from the authoritative source of OuttaMyAss.Com ...

Players would only be free agents if their contracts ran out; at that point they could sign with whoever they wanted. When teams sign free agents from lower leagues they would pay a nominal advancement fee to the lower league which would then reimburse the teams.
If the players were still under contract their Indy league /minor league team could sell them to a team in a higher league (presumably for a considerable profit).
After the consensus super studs were drafted and signed by MLB organizations, to "entry level organization contracts" for 3-5 years at ...I dunno, maybe 20 percent of MLB minimum salary. (Which is still massively higher than current minor league salaries.)

Then the indy league teams would sign the rest at shorter contracts at lower pay -- 1-3 years at $20-50K. The lower rung players, the roster fillers, would sign one-year contracts at $20-30K. They'd turn over pretty fast every season. Players who were deemed somewhat saleable would sign two-year deals at maybe $30-40K; if they were judged with good sales potential, you'd offer a 3-4 year deal at maybe $50-60,000 a year. Not big money, but ok money for a kid of college age with half his living expenses paid for and a reasonable chance to hit the big time.

A huge change would also be that indy league teams would have a fair amount of discretion over who they would sign and why; once again, winning would be a significant (although not the overwhelming) factor.

You might opt to keep a couple guys around who weren't hot prospects for sale to higher levels, but were solid players at your league level and could help you win.

 

A baseball version of Eli Manning ...

 

Oh I have a feeling the MLB lawyers have included language in all "affiliation" deals with the independant leagues. Why would MLB even "recognize" their existence if they didn't have some reason to (being able to pilfer players in exchange for some cash considerations).

 

Didn't J.D. Drew and a couple other players give independent ball a go for a a year or two, because they didn't like either the contracts they were offered or the team that drafted them?

As far as MLB ownership's reasoning for all of this - yes, it seems like it'll lower costs, because you're running X teams in "better" (either from a revenue or from a taxpayer assisted revenue standpoint) markets. However, the net result will be less talented people playing baseball. Some of the slack will be picked up by colleges and independent league teams, but you're going to lose talented athletes to other sports.

 

Drew was drafted by the Phillies IIRC and didn’t want to sign there.

 

Heard from semi-reliable sources my local AA team won't be playing this season.

Anyone else hearing rumblings?

 

Why won't it be playing?

 

Word is that if MLB delays Opening Day until the end of April, then it would cause a ripple that would hit the minors with A and AA in the most trouble and instructional and AAA the least likely to be impacted.

Beats me, I don't keep up with baseball like some of you all do and was wondering if those out on the beat had heard anything similar.

 

Whatever gets us quicker to pro/rel in baseball!

 

Leagues/divisions set. So much for the historic names.

MLB announces new Minors teams, leagues