Last Thursday, a report emerged that Major League Baseball’s most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement proposal to the players association included eliminating high school players from upcoming drafts, cutting the length from 20 to 12 rounds and tweaking the format of the international draft.
Despite the proposed plan still being discussed, the NCAA DI Cabinet approved a new age-based, five-year eligibility model earlier this week that will give players five years, five seasons, measured from either their enrollment or the season they turn 19.
These confirmed and potential ideas have major trickle-down effects for high school prospects across the country.
In Georgia, 46 high school seniors have been drafted over the past five years, and the state boasts seven top-200 prospects in this year’s MLB draft.
Although the draft is not until July 11-12, the MLB draft combine began Tuesday, with 13 Georgia high school players showcasing their talents in front of scouts at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
This week, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to a handful of Georgia’s more prominent high school baseball programs for their thoughts on these drastic changes and also received comments from UGA coach Wes Johnson.
“I don’t like it,” Parkview HS coach David Reynolds said. “I think we have a good track record of high school kids getting drafted out of high school, and then having success.”
Reynolds called the idea intriguing but thinks too much has been “in a small window,” and used Parkview alumni, and now Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson, and three-time American League MVP Mike Trout as examples of players who panned out all right going from high school to the pros.
Parkview is expected to have the 111th-ranked prospect and LSU commit, Malachi Washington, taken.
The second-year head coach called the whole situation “very frustrating” and posed a simple, yet dire question: “What do we do as a high school player?”
He is not the only one to express similar questions when approached about the future of amateur baseball.
Gainesville High School coach Chan Brown thinks any passing of legislation would “totally change the landscape of baseball in the United States.” Brown, who has been coaching Georgia high school baseball for over 20 years, believes there will be long-lasting effects that will seep into the college game as well.
“You will see a trickle-down effect from the top-tier high school kid going to the power 4 schools, which will start changing the rosters and the talent level at the D1, D2, D3 and juco schools,” he said. “College baseball will have to start developing players instead of them paying kids to play.”
Brown added that he wants the game to stop being so dollar sign-driven and get back to its roots.
“I personally think they should leave the system as is and stop making it just about the money, but in society today, everything is about money. At the end of the day, we need to remember that it is about the game of baseball and the players.”
With the NCAA now allowing players to stay in college for up to half a decade, the number of spots on collegiate rosters will continue shrinking.
Most schools will likely go after the highest-ranked recruits, resulting in, as Johnson said in an interview with the AJC, “a real big dogfight for those top 20 players, because those guys can come in and be very impactful in your program.”
If the proposal were to pass, high school seniors would need to wait two years, or until their sophomore year of college, to become draft-eligible.
The biggest winners of this could be junior colleges, who would be able to bring already MLB-level talent for two seasons, providing live-game reps and any additional development needed before they go pro.
“The ability to play like 20-30 fall games and then play 50-60 spring games, juco gets more work in than the complex leagues do game-wise,” North Oconee HS coach Eric Bounds said.
On the contrary, Reynolds does think junior college is a respectable route, but it could handicap players with high academics. These days, most top-tier Division 1 programs have incredibly high entry-level stats, forcing some to take multiple college-level courses.
Doing so can be good if you’re being recruited by a prominent university. However, most players, who are recruited by a juco, have to decide over playing in “a small town, in rural whatever it is, or do you want to go to a big school and just be a student.”
One coach who believes the proposal could have some benefits is Etowah High School’s Greg Robinson. Robinson has served as the Eagles’ head baseball coach since 2008 and guided the program to its third state championship this past season. He also teaches physical education and believes the value of an education extends far beyond a player’s athletic career.
“Education is what’s going to take them a lot longer than their athletic career,” Robinson said. “I think it’s going to be a really good thing. So many kids just forego education.”
Robinson acknowledged that elite prospects such as 22nd-ranked MLB prospect Trevor Condon and Matthew Sharman, both of whom are expected to be selected in next month’s draft, deserve the opportunity to begin their professional careers immediately. Still, he stressed the importance of having “a plan B.”
“You’ve got to have a plan B because baseball is not a long career,” Robinson said. “We encourage academic excellence, even going forward into college. There’s so much more academic money than athletic money.”
For Robinson, developing baseball players is secondary to developing young men.
“The paramount objective of my job is to develop young men who are going to be godly men,” Robinson said. “They’re going to be the best husband, the best father and the best employee. We’re creating a culture of excellence in all areas, not just baseball.”
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