Every year, particularly now that the MLB Draft is so close in time to the Trade Deadline, we all think the same thing: why oh why aren’t all draft picks freely tradable?!?
There are assuredly reasons, mostly antiquated, for why MLB is the only major sport that prohibits the free trade of draft picks (except for competitive balance picks, of which there are terribly few, and the vast majority aren’t dealt). Those reasons have long seemed to me to be outweighed by the fun – and possible added competitive balance! – of allowing picks to be traded.
The good-ish news on that front is that Commissioner Rob Manfred doesn’t seem all that opposed to making draft picks tradable, even if he reminds us that it has to be collectively bargained with the players.
Manfred, via Baseball America:
“The positions the clubs have taken over time in terms of what they want us to do at the table has been a product of a balance between flexibility in terms of utilizing the resources available to you on the one hand and paternalism on the other—that is I’m going to prevent you from doing acts because I think it would be stupid,” Manfred said.
“I don’t think we have that many stupid clubs. We’ll see how it shakes out. We will go through our (collective) bargaining prep. The clubs are really sophisticated now. I do think that there’s a really good argument for allowing them to decide how to use their resources.”
So there you go. While there was a time when it might’ve made sense to prevent clubs from selling off years and years worth of draft picks (which, by the way, you could simply limit, rather than prohibit), that probably no longer makes sense.
Add it to the list of things that’ll need negotiating during the next round of CBA talks in advance of the current deal’s expiration after 2026.
