Major League Baseball’s winters have become a mess. Each offseason the league’s perception woes accelerate further. From qualifying offers to compensatory picks, salary cap demands and free agency stagnation, it’s clear the league has issues it must address.
What if MLB utilized the MLB Draft as a tool to kickstart free agency?
Every winter it feels as though nothing happens from the day the World Series ends until the Winter Meetings kick up. But the offseason has technically begun. Free agency begins the day after the World Series. Players can sign with new teams five days later. But again, nothing happens. Too often it’s five weeks of silence.
Compare that to the NFL, a league often revered for the hype surrounding its free agency period. The Super Bowl takes place February 9, 2025 this year. Negotiations between agents and teams aren’t allowed until March 10, 2025. Players can then sign on March 12. There’s always a frenzy during the first few days of NFL free agency. That specified dead period creates a pressure, anticipation and build-up inside front offices.
Bring that to Major League Baseball. Let’s make it so free agents aren’t allowed to sign with new teams until Dec. 1 each year.
But this is where the MLB Draft comes into play.
The league should incentivize organizations to sign free agents early by awarding draft pick capital. If a CBT-payor signs a free agent with a total contract value more than $40 million before the start of the Winter Meetings (usually a week into December), award them a draft pick after the fourth round. We’ll call it a Compensatory Round D pick. But for organizations in smaller markets, specifically those that receive luxury tax payments, they’d be awarded a pick after the second round. A Compensatory Round B pick.
Small market teams believe their most efficient path to sustained success is through controllable, impact talent. This new rule should satiate the needs of those organizations. Incentivize them to spend money in free agency and spend it early.
The MLB “Hot Stove” has been tepid at best in recent years. This will warm things up. It’s a new cog in the machine that will allow the league to control the action in specific time blocks; one of its biggest weaknesses.
There are several variables that can go into the equation of the draft pick being awarded too. Value of the deal, market size of the signing team, qualifying offer attached or not, and more.
This new tool should also counterbalance the league’s insistence that teams that sign a player who rejected a qualifying offer should see a penalty in the next draft.
Major League Baseball is already compensating small market teams for letting their top talent walk in free agency. They need to award those small market teams for spending money too. Right now, the scale is tipped too far to one end.
Players would be thrilled with this change. More suitors for their services. Theoretically, more spending/bidding in free agency. Plus, more money in the bonus-pool pot for draft picks each summer. And fans would certainly welcome any rule change that stimulates spending from teams outside of the top of the tax bracket.
Major League Baseball has issues that need addressing. A salary cap may not be possible. A payroll floor may not be possible either. The league should use the tools at its disposal to incentivize more spending from teams in the bottom-half of the payroll bracket. If their goal is to drive continued interest in the Draft, this is a good way to kill two birds with one stone.
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