The players' union made its proposal for the domestic draft on Tuesday, one that runs in stark contrast to what Major League Baseball's owners proposed in bargaining last month.
Thirty-three days after the league proposed cutting the draft from 20 to 12 rounds, slashing amateur signing bonuses by more than $150 million and preventing high school players from entering, the MLBPA called to preserve the current system while also opening more doors to younger players.
The MLBPA proposed not only to maintain draft eligibility for high school and junior college players but also for those from four-year universities to be eligible after their sophomore years, regardless of age. College sophomores are currently only eligible if they are at least 21 years old by Aug. 1 of their draft year.
The MLBPA wants to maintain a system where signing bonus pools grow with industry revenues -- it was $358.7 million in 2026, up from $350.4 million in 2025 -- and provide small-market teams with the ability to increase them. Under their proposal, teams designated as "small market" under the collective bargaining agreement could add $2 million to their bonus pools in one draft over the next five years. A small-market team would also get an additional $1 million in bonus pool money for making the playoffs the prior year.
The MLBPA wants to preserve competitive balance picks, whereby low-revenue and small-market teams are eligible to receive a pick in Round A (between the first and second rounds) or Round B (between the second and third rounds).
The union also proposed reducing the tax penalties levied at teams that go over their allotted pools. The current CBA includes a 75% overage tax and the loss of a first-round pick for teams that outspend their pool by more than 5% (it increases to a 100% tax and the loss of a first- and second-round pick for those over by more than 10%). Under the MLBPA's proposal, teams could go over their allotted spending pools by as much as 15% without losing a draft pick and wouldn't lose a first-round pick unless they go over by more than 20%.
A team has never gone over its pool by more than 5%, but the MLBPA wants to give clubs the flexibility to do so in order to attract younger amateurs who could otherwise be lured by colleges offering NIL money and perhaps pivot to basketball or football. To further incentivize those amateurs, the union's proposal allows small-market teams to sign up to two players taken before the third round to major league contracts, whereby the slot value associated with that selection would be removed from their pool. Teams were allowed to do that before signing bonus pools were introduced in 2012.
The MLBPA also wants the draft moved up from July to June, and to allow for the trading of picks in the first 10 rounds up until two hours before the start of the draft.
On June 18, MLB proposed a 12-round, hard-slot domestic draft with signing bonus pools totaling $200 million in 2027. It also proposed an international draft under the same parameters, all of which would be part of a broader package highlighted by a cap-and-floor system at the major league level.
The MLBPA has yet to make its proposal for international amateurs, which constitutes players born outside the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.