Rule 4 Draft

 By - Mack Ade 

The name of the process that allows both high school and college baseball players to become part of major league baseball is named The Rule 4 Draft. We have no idea what happened to the other three. 

The current draft system began in 1965. Before that, you could sign anywhere you wanted, which surprised no one when the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals. Los Angeles Dodgers, and the New York Mets voted against it.

Others of us have always called this the Reichardt Draft.  

Rick Reichardt was a highly sort after prospect and an enormous bidding war broke out prior to the 1964 season. The Los Angeles Angels won the prize and Reichardt was paid a $200,000 bonus, a figure unheard of in those days.  The baseball lords had enough and created a draft system in which the team with the worst win-loss record the year before would receive the first pick.  

The draft includes high school seniors, eligible college players and “other amateur ballplayers” from the United States, Canada, and America properties like Puerto Rico. We’re not sure what “other amateur ballplayers” represent. Is barn-storming coming back, or maybe this includes you and me?

As we have discussed before, it currently does not include amateur players from Latin American countries, but baseball is currently working on a solution to that. 

The first ballplayer ever drafted was OF Rick Monday. He was chosen by the Kansas City Athletics and went on to a 19-year career with KC, Oakland, the Cubs, and the Dodgers. 

The second ever pick in the draft was made by the New York Mets. They picked someone named Les Rohr. No one ever said that the system wasn’t flawed with human limitations. I always found it amusing that it took the Mets 12 rounds that year to draft Nolan Ryan. What were the other teams thinking? 

The new labor agreement that was finalized in November 2011 includes some sweeping changes to the draft system that will virtually eliminate the rampant overspending of bonus money to incoming prospects.

The new agreement will designate an aggregate bonus pool for the first ten rounds of each team. The value of each pick will be assigned, but only the pool number will be enforced.  Teams that exceed the pool number will have to pay an additional tax on the overage handed out. Only history will see how teams like the Yankees approach this. 

Some remain critical of this new rule. There will never be another “steal” like the Mets did when they drafted SS Phillip Evans last year in the 15^th round. The “pool” money does have some individual flexibility, but only for players picked in the top ten rounds. There doesn’t seem to be much of an incentive for high school players to

sign if they are picked in the 11^th round, or later. A decent three-year college stint would give them the opportunity to again be drafted, and hopefully be offered big bonus money. Others see players affected as early as the third and fourth round. 

Even the biggest supports of the old system though that the bonus figures were getting out-of-hand.  Sure, you can go over the pool number, but it is going to cost you. In fact, if you exceed the pool number by 15%, you will be charged a one hundred per cent tax on the overage plus you will lose your first round picks in the next two drafts.  

The first test will be when another Bryce Harper comes along. That player would obviously be picked first and offered a ton of money. Going to college wouldn’t change that number much. In addition, there will be no major league deals allowed so that option is out the door also. 

What isn’t in this deal is a “hard slotting system” that other major sports have implemented. Football and basketball don’t have these problems anymore. In addition, baseball continued to not allow teams to trade their draft picks to other teams. 

I have always been a proponent of allowing draft picks to be traded. There is no reason why baseball should operate differently than the other major sports leagues. I can’t think of any quicker way for a weak team to become competitive overnight. 

Imagine if the Washington Nationals were allowed to trade the picks that got them Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper? Do you have any idea how many quality ballplayers would already be playing in the nation’s capital for those picks? I’m sure the Nats would think twice before trading either one of these future stars, but what if a team offered a package that included three established stars that were still arbitration eligible? 

For reasons basically undefined, baseball feels that a competitive imbalance would be created if they let teams operate like every other professional sport. I can’t defend the current policy. Last year’s playoff teams would run to scoop up a top pick in the draft, but, at the same time, they would have to offer the team with early picks a package of players that could immediately turn their fate around.  

Let’s use the 2012 Mets as an example. 

Currently, the Mets have the 12^th pick overall in the 2012 draft.  Teams like the Yankees would die for this pick and there would be a good chance that the Mets could pry away one of the Yankees catcher prospects for this pick. Both teams would win here. The Yankees get an early pick and the Mets get a much needed catching prospect on the brink of being ready for the big leagues. 

But, this isn’t the only direction the Mets could go with this pick. They could want to solidify the future of their rotation with having one of the top three picks in the draft, thus guaranteeing them getting either Luc Giolito, Mark Appel, or Kevin Gausman. 

All the Mets have to do is offer David Wright, and the 12^th pick overall and you potentially have the best rotation in 2015.  

I don’t know if this is too hard for baseball to figure out, but it still takes two to tango. No one team could upset the applecart without finding a dancing partner. And, you couldn’t criticize the team that trades away a draft pick for not picking the player the other team winds up with because you would never find out who they were going to pick anyway.