Since the advent of rules, people have tried to find loopholes. Sports aren’t different; if anything, it happens more than anywhere else. So is it surprising that MLB teams have found a way to escape the Rule 4 draft system to get better prospects at an earlier date? However, that has led to multiple issues, namely age falsification. As a result, the league has released a memo that tries to limit the teams’ growing influence on young players.

There has been a growing practice among teams to encourage amateur players in the United States to leave school or refrain from playing High school baseball in the US or Canada. In place, they were told to go abroad to establish their residency there. This made the young players eligible for the International Amateur Talent System instead of the Rule 4 draft.

There’s a huge difference in how the league deals with international talents as opposed to US/Canadian ones. First of all, picks cannot be traded in the MLB draft. This makes the team’s access to elite players a subject of their draft order. As a result, some teams miss out on top drafts. However, in the international pool, nothing of this sort happens. The Bonus pools are similarly sized and the teams can negotiate with any player. 

The MLB has now released a draft that discourages teams from doing this act.  The memo says that encouraging players to make this change; “shall be subject to significant penalties, including, but not limited to, the denial of player selection rights under the (MLB Draft) or loss of benefits under the International Amateur Talent System.” (via ESPN).

The league clearly doesn’t want the young kids to leave their US high schools to get an earlier entry into the teams. This is another step through which the league is trying to make things fairer in baseball, especially after the recent age falsification controversy.

MLB’s efforts to change the international system 

MLB has always been in favor of an International Draft instead of what happens currently. That would make such early deals virtually non-existent, however, the MLBPA opposes such arrangements. As a result, things have been rather cold on this front. However, the issue became even more complicated after the age of falsified records came into the picture. 

The Athletic reported how international players were sometimes reducing their age by over 6 years to become a more attractive option for MLB teams. That led to multiple players being questioned, with even New York  Yankees’ Jasson Dominguez coming into the crosshairs. All of this pointed towards a need for change. However, with the inability of the commissioner to find common grounds with the MLBPA – things look tough as of now.