How To Fix the MLB Draft

July 19, 2025 Shaun Kernahan General, MLB Draft 0

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When it comes to highlighting the next generation of stars, Major League Baseball regularly drops the ball, and it has never been more on display than it was in Atlanta last weekend. The Futures Game had an embarrassing turnout and was once again buried on a Saturday afternoon opposite a full slate of regular season MLB games. That is another topic for another day because I want to focus on what I am always focused on, the MLB Draft.


The week leading into the Draft I kept sifting through the MLB press releases, trying to find the list of players who would be attending the Draft and, day after day, there was nothing. Draft day comes, and still nothing until I get word from those at the event that a grand total of zero players showed up. Day one of two that would ultimately be 615 young ballplayers hearing their name announced drafted by an MLB team, and zero attended the event to experience it in person, in front of their team’s fans, on national television.

Baseball has a unique setup that certainly helps in some ways, and hinders in others when it comes to younger players and fans getting to know them. Unlike the NFL and, for the most part, the NBA, players don’t get drafted and head straight to the top level of the sport, but instead they head to the minor leagues. Yes, the NBA has the G-League and NHL has its own setup of minor league clubs and players are still allowed to participate in juniors and in college after being selected, but MLB has a developmental system unique to themselves. Players can fade from the public while they are in the minors, but Minor League Baseball is also much more accessible to much of America than big league games, and kids get to be closer to the players, creating memories that last a lifetime.

Back to the Draft, college baseball is bigger than it has ever been. There has never been more ability to follow high school baseball, and the MLB Draft has never had more people interested in it than today. Why did no players show up and how can we make it a bigger event like the other sports?

I have a somewhat radical idea, but one that I guarantee would increase interest from fans and make even bigger headlines than the Draft already does. Post All-Star break is the time we all turn to “hug watch” as we head down the stretch and teams are making determinations on whether they are buyers or sellers and look to make moves to either build their future, or bring on reinforcements down the stretch run. Let’s make all draft picks fully tradable, even when the team is on the clock.

But Shaun, every pick has a slot value and teams use their total bonus pool to negotiate with players leading into the Draft and it also drives a team’s strategy and where a player is selected.

Correct, but therein lies yet another problem. Shouldn’t the best player be the first player selected? I am not saying the Washington Nationals didn’t have Eli Willits as the top player on the board. There is certainly an argument for him to be the top player regardless of signing bonus, but why is how much he will sign for a factor in how high a player goes in the Draft? Why should rounds 8-10 be the rounds we just accept a bunch of college seniors will go so a team can sign them for $10K and use the rest of that slot value for a guy in the 15th round? Well, I have a solution to that, but it will take an open mind, so join me on this journey.

Make every pick guaranteed for the slot value, nothing over, nothing under. The slot is the slot. End of negotiation. While plenty of agents will certainly hate this idea straight away, hear me out. In 2024, Travis Bazzana was selected first overall and signed for $8.95M, but his slot value was $10.57M. Meanwhile, Chase Burns, who was selected second, set the record for highest ever signing bonus in the draft at $9.25M, still under the slot value of $9.79. Let’s adjust the slot values to more accurately match what players are signing for and spread that total money out across all 20 rounds. Exact numbers I will leave to the league accountants.

Ok, so this solves the issue with players making deals with teams to get more money at pick X than Y even though Y has a higher value, and it frees up the ability to make trades in real time. I mean, come on, how much fun would it be to find out the Mariners had traded the third overall pick this year for Eugenio Suarez and the 18th overall pick on Draft night? Or, how about the Angels, sitting at two and have their heart set on getting an arm, but don’t see a massive difference between Tyler Bremner, who they took, Kade Anderson, Liam Doyle, or Jamie Arnold? They could have feasibly dealt that second overall pick to the White Sox for their pick at 10 along with a second and fourth round pick. It would get everyone on the edge of their seat when the commissioner steps to the microphone and says “we have a trade to announce.”

Now comes another issue, we have high school players, JuCo players, draft eligible sophomores, and college juniors all in the Draft with years of eligibility left. How do we do right by them and their ability to keep playing if they don’t get drafted, or they don’t get drafted as high as they would like? Well, how about we have players submit to the league the bare minimum they would sign a pro contract for? This can give the player SOME say in where they go, giving themselves a floor for the given year or they will go back to school AND they can set their floor with a certain team if they so choose.

This year eyes were on, well, figurative eyes because, again, no players were actually there, Jack Bauer, the high school lefty who throws 103. We were wondering where he would go. Would it be late in the first round, or would it be one of the comp picks? Answer: None. He went undrafted and will be attending Mississippi State. The reason for that is, in all likelihood, his asking price didn’t match what teams were willing to pay. But if we know his floor was, for example, $3.85M, then we would know once he got past the Royals at 23 with that slot value, that he would be heading to school in that very moment. It would create additional drama, seeing the player you want to get to your team has a value set in, say the third round, leaves you knowing that pick is the last chance for your team to take him this year. It adds drama and makes it an even more must-watch event.


With that, you would likely see more players attend the event because it is a true draft and not a day of negotiations to see what deal can be made to slide here or move up there. Could you imagine Bauer having his floor at that Royals pick, the Royals on the clock, Bauer at the Draft, Royals fans wondering if they are going to take him. Mississippi State fans hoping to hear anyone else’s name so they get their guy to campus? The tension and atmosphere around those picks would be incredible.

Last preemptive move against an argument is, what about those college seniors? Don’t they get the short end of the stick here because they don’t have any negotiating power therefore they will fall down boards? Somewhat, yes, but if a team wants you they are still going to take you, and it sets a minimum signing bonus rather than that $10K teams throw at certain seniors. It prevents a team from drafting Landon Schaefer after he announced he would be attending school so we know nothing will come of that pick.

Is there plenty of fine tuning and ironing out of this plan to make it work? Absolutely. But I promise you, if there are trades, there is the additional tension of pick floors or a guy goes to school, and there are actually players at the Draft. If this happens, I likely won’t ever again get a message like the one I got this year from someone in attendance:

“I will never attend again. That was boring!”

Disclaimer: This column is an editorial with thoughts and words from Shaun Kernahan. It does not necessarily reflect or stand for the position of Prospects1500.

Shaun Kernahan is the MLB Draft correspondent for Prospects1500. When not at a game, chances are the TV and/or tablet has a game on and he has a notepad out taking notes. When not scouting draft prospects, he is the Director of Baseball Operations for the Mile High Collegiate Baseball League, a collegiate wood bat league in Colorado. Shaun can be found on Twitter at @ShaunKernahan.

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