Should MLB allow trades to include draft picks?

Should MLB allow trades to include draft picks?

Many sports allow professional teams to trade draft picks. The worst team can trade for a decent player by allowing a better team to take their number one draft pick. Major League baseball, however, doesn’t allow this to happen. There are gentlemen’s agreements, but if someone reneges on it, there’s nothing that can be done. For example of a gentleman’s agreement, it’s wrong to say the Twins took Johan Santana in the Rule 5 pick in 1999. The Twins took Jarrod Camp, for the Marlins, with the agreement that the Marlins would take Johan Santana, and they’d make the trade of the players (with the Twins getting cash compensation as well). The Marlins could’ve easily decided upon picking Santana that they wanted to keep him, and there’s nothing the Twins could’ve done. I imagine things like this happen on occasion in the actual draft in June, although I haven’t heard of any examples. Most teams want the best player they can get. The rules of the Rule 5 draft make things a little murkier.

But the question comes up: should MLB allow teams to include draft picks in their trade?

Personally, I’m glad they don’t. Hooray for other sports–most of them having salary caps–for making it work, but I just don’t see it working favorably in baseball the way things are set up right now. The difference between MLB and the other professional sports is the deep level of lower-level franchises. I’ll be honest. I don’t know how many minor-league levels other sports have. I think hockey only has one that’s affiliated with teams, and then there are other independent hockey leagues. Football players are often developed in college programs. Baseball has six levels of minor leagues. For example, the Twins have six minor league teams across five levels (no Short-Season A [but very few teams do], but two rookie-level teams).

Because of the depth of the minor league teams, every single organization has a responsibility to fill rosters at every level, and to develop players at every level. Smaller market teams will put more stock in their minor league system, while larger-market teams are more likely to trade their minor league players, knowing they can afford a free agent pick if their short at a position. However, this is why it’s important to both small- and large-market teams to develop minor league players. The large-market team needs attractive minor-league players to attract the small-market team in a trade for a star player. The small-market team needs attractive minor league players to fill in when they lose star players in trades or in free agency. Both markets have a responsibility to their fan base to develop their minor-league team, even if it’s for entirely different reasons.

This is why I’m glad they can’t trade draft picks. A small-market team who trades their draft picks away to get a few good players in a year when they’re making a run at the playoffs can hurt their team’s long-term future.

In a round-about way, draft picks are traded. By signing a high-level free agent player, a team will forfeit either a first- or second-round pick. But for the magnitude of the number of rounds in the draft, and the diamonds in the rough that come out of lower-level rounds every year, losing at most two picks is hardly going to affect an organization (NBA has 2 rounds/60 picks; NFL has 7 rounds/256 picks; NHL has 7 rounds/210 picks; MLB has 60 rounds/1,502 picks). However, this is why trading draft picks doesn’t work as well for baseball. A savvy general manager would simply trade away his top two picks, and go on to sign top free agents. You can’t lose draft picks you don’t have.

Other sports have set themselves up to allow the trading of draft picks. Baseball has not. As such, baseball organizations need to keep their draft picks, to keep their minor league systems stocked for the future. It’s not in the interest of anyone in baseball to have a team fail, and a losing team will fail if no hope is ever offered. As long as a team drafts well, there is hope for the future. With no draft picks, there would be no hope for the long-term future.