Report: MLBPA Rejects MLB's Modified 2020 Amateur Draft Proposal

The Major League Baseball Players Association reportedly rejected a proposal from the league on how to handle the 2020 amateur draft with the season currently on hiatus amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic reported the news Thursday.

"MLB's proposal included 10 rounds—five more than the minimum MLB is permitted, per an arrangement the sides reached in March—but included other restrictions that the players found unacceptable," Rosenthal and Drellich wrote.

However, the report noted the draft is still expected to happen in June.  

Under the league's proposal, players selected in the first five rounds would earn the same slot values as those picked in those rounds last year. The significant changes came elsewhere, with those selected in the last five rounds making 50 percent of the slot values and having a hard cap for their signing bonuses.

What's more, the proposal called for limiting the number of undrafted players who could receive a maximum bonus of $20,000 at just five with no limit for those who could make $5,000 or less.

While players want more rounds to allow access to the league for more players, they likely don't want to sacrifice in other areas. Still, the league could use the number of rounds in the draft as leverage and threaten to reduce the total in any new proposals.

After all, the general framework the two sides agreed on in March called for a draft between five and 40 rounds, although there was no limit on the number of undrafted players teams could sign at the $20,000 maximum, and it called for slot values equal to those of last year.

The back-and-forth on the draft underscores the general uncertainty regarding baseball's immediate future with no clear plan in place for an eventual return to games and a lack of gate receipts and television broadcasts that would typically be happening at this point of the year.

The Tampa Bay Rays have furloughed a portion of their full-time employees, while the New York Mets and San Diego Padres will cut the pay of their full-time employees starting June 1. 

Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported on a potential return to games Thursday, noting teams around the league are "preparing for the possibility of resuming spring training at their regular-season ballparks instead of returning to spring training sites in Florida and Arizona."