2020 MLB Draft Will Only Last Five Rounds, Which is Awful News for Players

Rob Manfred at the 2019 Major League Baseball Winter Meetings
Rob Manfred at the 2019 Major League Baseball Winter Meetings / Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images
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Major League Baseball has decided how it will proceed with the 2020 MLB Draft. According to multiple reports, the draft be reduced from 40 rounds to five. After those five rounds, teams will be allowed to sign an unlimited number of players for $20,000 each.

More information from ESPN's Jeff Passan is below:

It appears the owners want to cut costs so badly they don't want to draft to last beyond five rounds. Despite that, front offices wanted the draft to be longer because of the value that could be mined from later picks. This will now turn things into a bit of a free-for-all where the majority of draft-eligible players will essentially become free agents.

Unfortunately for those players who go undrafted, their bonuses will be capped at a comically low $20,000.

This is just another way the COVID-19 pandemic really stuck it to the draft-eligible players this year. As I discussed with Keith Law a few weeks ago, players in this year's class are getting the short end of the stick.

It's a huge blow to the players and, as Passan points out, it won't really save owners that much money in the end.

Rob Manfred and the owners apparently got their way on this one.