2022 MLB Draft tracker: Results, full list of every draft pick; analysis of all first-round selections

Here’s who should’ve gone 1st in every Draft

2013 (Astros): Mark Appel (0.2)
Should’ve picked: Aaron Judge, 32nd overall, Yankees (29.9)
Appel finally made a triumphant Major League debut this season with the Phillies, but Judge has a good shot to join Kris Bryant (No. 2, Cubs) and Cody Bellinger (fourth round, Dodgers) as the third MVP Award winner from this class. (And remember, the Yanks got that 32nd pick as compensation for Nick Swisher leaving for Cleveland in free agency the previous offseason).

SOURCES: OVER 100 PLAYERS REJECT DRAFT COMBINE PHYSICAL; VOID DRAFT BONUS GUARANTEE

According to sources close to the event, only 70 percent of players who attended the 2022 MLB Draft Combine opted to take Major League Baseball’s pre-draft physical. Those who didn’t take the physical have currently voided their guarantee of receiving 75 percent of their future draft slot bonus. 255 players attended the event. Roughly 180 of those players took the physical.

A new piece of the collective bargaining agreement executed this winter guaranteed amateur players 75 percent of their slot bonus in the MLB Draft. Only players designated as “Top 300” prospects were eligible for that guarantee, so long as they took Major League Baseball’s pre-draft physical. The clause was added to the new CBA to help protect amateur players from being used as pawns for teams to either save money or procure future draft picks awarded to them after failing to sign their draft picks. Some have referred to this new clause as the “Kumar Rocker Rule”, though Rocker never submitted a pre-draft physical in 2021. The New York Mets eventually drafted him in the first round and failed to sign him after he “failed” his physical.

As things currently stand, more than 100 players designated as “Top 300” players in the 2022 MLB Draft will still be able to negotiate deals with teams under that 75 percent guarantee. According to sources, most of the players who elected to forego the physical were older players who lack leverage to return to school and improve their draft stock for 2023.

There isn’t a long history of “top” players receiving less than 75 percent of their slot bonus. In fact, in some cases, players made more money than they likely would have had they been required to take 75 percent of their slot bonus.

How one pitching prospect could change the MLB draft forever—by not pitching

On April 12, six days after the outing in which Lesko was hurt, Barriera notified scouts that he would be making two more starts, then shutting down for the remainder of the season to prepare for July’s MLB draft. (He is committed to play at Vanderbilt if he ends up not signing.) Barriera would still be a part of all team activities, he said, but was effectively skipping one regular-season start and the postseason (which could mean as many as five additional starts). No amateur pitcher had ever made this specific decision.

“I’m doing what’s best for myself,” Barriera said in an interview with ESPN last month. “You see all the Tommy Johns this year, even for college guys, they were so close. You have to ask yourself if it’s worth it.”

Although Lesko’s injury certainly weighed on him, Barriera said this decision wasn’t purely reactionary. “I had been thinking about this for a while,” he said. “It wasn’t just one morning I came up with it. Every night I was sitting with my parents and talking until we came to a peace about it.”

A number of sources I spoke with think that Barriera will be an early domino to entice more pitchers to take their futures more into their own hands, much like college football players skipping their teams’ bowl games has become practically the norm. Running backs have only so many hits they can take, pitchers have only so many fastballs in the tank, and we don’t know what that number is, so they need to be timed well.

With pitchers throwing harder at younger ages and the incentives to throw nearly year-round, this attrition problem isn’t going away. I asked an NL GM how much he’d pay for a magical algorithm that would tell him a pitcher’s next five years of health. His answer: “Everything we have.”

MLB Draft and MLB Draft Combine details announced

Major League Baseball on Thursday officially announced details for the 2022 MLB Draft and Draft Combine. For a second consecutive year, the MLB Draft will be featured during All-Star Week, taking place in Los Angeles from July 17-19, while the Draft Combine will be held at Petco Park in San Diego from June 14th-20th. MLB Network will once again provide extensive coverage of the MLB Draft and Draft Combine.

The Draft will feature 20 rounds across the three days, including the first two rounds, compensatory round(s) and competitive balance rounds on the opening night of the Draft. Selections on day two will feature picks in rounds 3 through 10, while the final day will cover rounds 11 through 20. For the third time in history, the Orioles will have the first selection of the Draft. Previously, Baltimore drafted right-handed pitcher Ben McDonald (1989) and catcher Adley Rutschman (2019), who is currently ranked as the number one overall prospect by MLB Pipeline.

The top 300 draft-eligible players, as identified by USA Baseball and MLB Clubs, will be invited to attend the 2022 Draft Combine along with up to 30 supplemental invites.

Jim Callis: “All 18 non-playoff clubs will enter a lottery for the top six picks.

Chance of getting first pick.

MLB CBA negotiations: MLBPA makes second economics proposal with only minor changes, per report

The Players’ Association made their second economic proposal last week, report The Athletic’s Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal, though it included only minor adjustments to their initial proposal in May. Among other things, the union’s May proposal included:

Raising the minimum salary and getting players into arbitration earlier.
Changes to the way service time is calculated, including early free agency in some cases.
Adjustment to the way the draft order is determined (currently reverse order of the standings).

MLB made their first (and so far only) economic proposal in August and it included a $100 million salary floor and a $180 million luxury tax threshold, substantially lower than the $210 million threshold in 2021. Also, the salary floor would be a “soft” floor, in which teams could simply pay a penalty should they fail to field a $100 million roster.,