sports
MLB Owners Propose Removing High School Players From Draft in CBA Talks
Major League Baseball is weighing a proposal to remove high school players from its draft during collective bargaining talks with the players union. Philadelphia Phillies amateur scouting director Brian Barber voiced opposition to the idea. The change remains under discussion and has not been finalized.
Jul 10, 7:00 AM·1m read1 source
theconversation.comAudio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
Developing·Limited corroboration so far. This page will refresh as more sources emerge.
Major League Baseball is considering a proposal to eliminate high school players from the MLB Draft as part of negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union, Forbes reported. Philadelphia Phillies amateur scouting director Brian Barber said he would not be excited about the proposal.
"It would totally change the landscape of what scouting is all about," Barber said.
Barber acknowledged that nothing is set in stone yet. He has overseen multiple drafts for the Phillies that helped strengthen one of the organization’s top-ranked farm systems. Barber told The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber earlier this year that his department meets for about 10 days leading up to the draft.
"And obviously we had talked about those players a lot before then, but you start to get down into every deep weed that you can try to talk about on those players and all the other players that are on the board at the time," Barber said. MLB executives generally want to appear united as the owners negotiate changes with the players union.
The proposal remains in the discussion stage and has not been finalized.
