Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke on a variety of topics today, including loosening the rules on trading draft picks. Via Baseball America's JJ Cooper, Manfred suggested that owners have some flexibility to allow teams more freedom to trade picks but noted that changes would have to be negotiated with the MLB Players Association.
Under current rules, teams can only trade competitive balance picks. Clubs with only small markets/revenues get that and make up a small portion of the total number of picks in the draft.
Many other sports allow for trades of draft picks, which adds an element of excitement to the draft itself and trades throughout the year. Many have argued for MLB to follow suit and allow picks to be traded, but the argument has been that teams could send too many picks and waste years of fielding inactive teams.
The counter to that argument has often been that teams can still do themselves a lot of damage by trading prospects and that things won't change meaningfully by adding a pick to the equation. Furthermore, it has been argued that parties should face the consequences of their actions rather than be protected from them in advance. This last point seems to be something that Manfred accepts.
“The positions that the clubs have taken over time regarding what they want us to do at the table have been the result of a compromise between being flexible about using the resources you have on the one hand and loving my father on the other – that I will stop you from doing things because I think it will be stupid,” said Manfred. “I don't think we have that many stupid teams. We'll see how it shakes out. We will deal with our (cooperative) negotiation plans,” he continued. “Clubs are very sophisticated now. I think there's a really good conflict that allows them to decide how they're going to use their resources.”
The MLBPA apparently has some level of concern about tanking, the practice of teams making themselves worse in the present to improve their chances of winning in the future. They have tried to push back against this trend by looking at things in CBA negotiations like a salary floor or a draft lottery, with success in the latter but not the former.
A team that cuts itself by trading multiple draft picks may have a free agent lead impact, as such a franchise may be in such a bad long-term situation that it can't stay out of free agency for a while. But that being said, that's not much like a team under the current system that traded for prospect capital and spent years in rebuilding mode. It could also be argued that such a club would be incentivized to sign free agents who could be traded for draft picks, including those traded in previous years.
Whether the two sides can agree to change the rules will be known in the next few years, as the current CBA extends through the 2026 season. They will have many other issues to deal with, such as the competitive balance tax, minimum wages, TV/broadcast revenue plans, expansion and other topics, but maybe there is a glimmer of hope for those who want to see a draft of the trade hands in the future. .
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