2021 MLB Draft order to be set by 2020 standings, per report; Pirates get No. 1 pick, Red Sox in top five

Major League Baseball has decided that the final draft order for 2021will be determined by reverse order of the 2020 final standings, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports. That’s the typical way of ordering draft selections, and for some time it’s been believed that MLB would go that route.

The March agreement between MLB and the players association gave commissioner Rob Manfred has the right to modify the draft order rather than let the 60-game 2020 regular season determine it as usual, which led to speculation that MLB might depart from the usual format.

The 2021 draft order is set.

1. Pittsburgh Pirates
2. Texas Rangers
3. Detroit Tigers
4. Boston Red Sox
5. Baltimore Orioles
6. Arizona Diamondbacks
7. Kansas City Royals
8. Colorado Rockies
9. Los Angeles Angels
10. New York Mets

Full story: https://t.co/i9PUO0MTCA

— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) October 12, 2020

Red Sox don’t deserve No. 1 pick in draft, and here’s hoping Rob Manfred doesn’t give it to them

Considering the owners barely wanted to play this 60-game lice infestation of a season to begin with, it hardly seems fair to award the top pick based solely on 2020. That’s especially true of the Red Sox, who have reached deep into the recesses of baseball-reference for pitchers like Mike Kickham, Robinson Leyer, Mitchell Godfrey, Andrew Triggs, and James Conyers, and yes, I made two of those names up, and no, I don’t expect you to know which.

Even accepting that no one anticipated Eduardo Rodriguez missing the season to a COVID-related heart condition, the Red Sox never approached this season with anything resembling a will to win. Ownership tied the hands of chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom all winter, which is how Martin Perez and Jose Peraza end up being the big splashes in free agency.

The entire purpose of the last 11 months has been to cut salary, primarily by trading Mookie Betts and David Price. Had J.D. Martinez opted out, he’d be gone, too. Trying to compete in 2020 never entered the equation.

And yet the Red Sox could be rewarded for it. Manfred, baseball’s commissioner, holds the power to order the 2021 draft however he sees fit, but he’s yet to reveal his intentions. If the order is based simply on 2020 record, the 12-25 Red Sox would currently pick third behind the 10-24 Pirates and 12-25 Angels, losing a tiebreaker with L.A. thanks to a better 2019 record.

Baseball America: Sources: 2021 MLB Draft To Be Held Later In The Summer [$]

The 2021 first-year player draft is set to be held July 11-13 in Atlanta, Baseball America has confirmed from multiple front office sources.

After a five-round draft in 2020, next year’s draft is set to be 20 rounds according to an agreement between MLB and the MLB Player’s Association. That the draft is scheduled for three days indicates that, at least for now, MLB intends to hold the the 20-round draft it set for 2021 as part of an agreement with the MLB Players Association

The move to July will tie the 2021 MLB draft into All-Star weekend. July 11 is the Sunday before the All-Star Game, allowing MLB to include draftees in one of the biggest weeks of the MLB season.

Tigers sign Spencer Torkelson to record-setting bonus

The Detroit Tigers have signed No. 1 overall draft pick Spencer Torkelson to a record-setting bonus.

The Arizona State first baseman signed for $8,416,300, according to MLB.com’s Jim Callis.

That’s the largest bonus for a draft pick since Major League Baseball began using bonus pools.

The bonus was exactly $1,000 more than the slot value for the No. 1 pick, perhaps a symbolic statement from Torkelson’s agent, Scott Boras, to ensure that his client was paid “over slot.”

2020 MLB draft: Everything you need to know on draft day

On to the fun stuff. Whom will the Tigers take with the first pick?

Arizona State first baseman Spencer Torkelson is the odds-on favorite. He led the nation with 25 home runs as a freshman, followed that with 23 as a sophomore and was off to a great start in 2020, hitting .340/.598/.780. If he goes No. 1, he will be just the second or third first baseman to go first overall, depending on how you slice things, and the first right-handed-hitting first baseman. The Marlins selected Adrian Gonzalez first overall in 2000—current Tigers general manager Al Avila was then the scouting director for the Marlins—and the Yankees selected Ron Blomberg first in 1967, though he spent most of his time in the minors and his first season in the majors as an outfielder.

Didn’t see a thread for the draft, so I guess use this?

BA: Explaining Why A Team Would Punt On The 2020 Draft, And Why It Doesn’t Make Sense

The 2021 draft is expected to be overstuffed. There will be a much better junior college class than normal because of high school players and Division I kickbacks who end up opting to head to junior college because it allows them to be draft eligible in one year (rather than the two or three years that is the case for D-I players). It’s also viewed as a very talented college crop that again is expected to have plenty of pitching.

And one could argue that it will be a more “normal” draft. If the 2021 season is played as usual, teams will have more data and more scouting looks than they had in the abbreviated 2020 spring season.

So arguably, a team punting on its 2020 first-round pick would have the ability to take better advantage of the even deeper 2021 draft.

There are problems with that argument. A draft pick now is worth more than the very same pick a year from now, something that has been consistently shown in sports which allow the trading of draft picks. An NFL team wanting a third-round pick in the current draft has to give up a second-round pick in the following year’s draft to make the deal. Consistently in the NFL draft, teams have to offer a pick from a round earlier in next year’s draft to account for the difference in value between picking now and picking a year later.

Let’s Field an All Late-Round Team

You don’t get a team of All-Stars from top to bottom, but you sure get a lot of them! The bullpen depth is a bit thin past these names, but this team has rotation depth through next week, with players like Brandon Woodruff, Miles Mikolas, Brad Keller, Tyler Mahle, and Zach Davies not even making the final 26-man roster. The only player in the starting lineup who would be a real surprise at the Midsummer Classic would be defensive specialist Tucker Barnhart (you can swap him out for Mitch Garver if you prefer).

This team wouldn’t combine for the 67 WAR projected — players like Kevin Kiermaier wouldn’t get full-time at-bats, for example — but they’d easily compete with the best teams in baseball. Replacing the Baltimore Orioles with this team (nobody would miss this year’s O’s) over a normal season leads to a 101-61 projection, which would be the best team ZiPS has ever projected. These players combined to make $3.5 million in signing bonuses, with nearly half the roster (12 of 26) getting at least $100,000. The maximum signing bonuses for this group this year is $520,000, only 15% of what they were actually paid.

Son of Agassi, Graf could be a future ace

Oh, he’s dabbled in the sport associated with his world-famous parents, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. But that usually just results in Jaden smacking the ball as hard as he can, with no regard for the rules or the lines.

His mom and dad can have their 30 combined Grand Slam singles titles. Jaden just wants to hit grand slams.

“I love baseball,” he says. “I love the teammates, surviving and fighting with your brothers. Every game comes with a new set of challenges, and I really love figuring those out.”

The 18-year-old Agassi is following that love and forging his own athletic path. He’s a home-schooled third baseman and right-handed pitcher in the home stretch of his rehab from Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow. And he’s planning to begin his collegiate career at the University of Southern California in the fall after standout summers with Las Vegas Recruits, a college prep baseball academy.

Griffey a Pirate? Chipper a Tiger? The MLB draft rule that changed history

What if I told you that, if not for a now-defunct MLB draft rule, Ken Griffey Jr. would be wearing a Pirates cap on his Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown?

And that Alex Rodriguez never would have been a Mariner, either?

And that Chipper Jones would’ve gone to Detroit, not Atlanta?...

All of that is due in part to a small yet significant draft rule retired 15 years ago. It stipulated that the No. 1 pick alternate each year between leagues. The NL drafted first in even years; the AL was first in odd years. Take Griffey’s draft, for example. The NL had drafted first in 1986 — Pittsburgh took Jeff King — and the top pick ping-ponged back to the AL in 1987. The lucky losers? The Mariners, despite having a better record than the Pirates.

This rule, alternating draft order by league, lived for 41 years. It shaped the course of baseball history, and then it quietly went away.

“I did not know about that rule,” Jones said, then laughed. “Not until now.”

MLB Announces Official Dates For Shortened 2020 Draft

The five rounds of the 2020 MLB draft will be held over two days, June 10 and June 11. Both days will be televised by MLB Network.

On June 10, the first 37 picks (the first round and the first competitive balance picks) will be announced, beginning at 7 p.m. ET.

On June 11, the remaining 123 picks (the second through fifth rounds) will be announced, beginning at 5 p.m. ET…..

Teams will be allowed to sign an unlimited number of nondrafted eligible players for up to $20,000, but there will be strict restrictions on talking to nondrafted players about signing during, or in the days immediately following, the draft. MLB went into detail to attempt to limit the possibilities of teams offering any sort of special inducement to convince a nondrafted player to sign.

According to MLB, teams will be prohibited from talking to nondrafted players until 9 a.m. ET on June 14. From the conclusion of the draft until that time, no team official or scout can talk to any undrafted players, their family members or any other representative of the player. While teams are allowed to talk to the player before or during the draft about the possibility of drafting that player, they are also not allowed to discuss the possibility of signing the player after the draft if he goes unpicked.

These undrafted players cannot be offered any special inducements beyond the standard player contract, modest contingency bonuses and scholarships through the continuing education program.

Sources: MLB shortens 2020 draft from 40 rounds to 5

Major League Baseball will cut its 2020 draft to five rounds, as owners looking to save costs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic pushed for fewer rounds over the objection of front-office officials, sources told ESPN.