’22 40-Man Preview Extravaganza
Baseball is generally regarded as slower to catch up with other sports in certain areas, but this season marks a particularly interesting phase-out before next year’s “new normal.” What I’m referring to here is that the 2019 draft, for which college players are now eligible for the Rule 5, was the last year of the draft going up to forty rounds. As we know, the pandemic limited the 2020 draft to five rounds, and thereafter, the new CBA has affirmed a twenty-round draft moving forward. The minor league contraction ensures that it will probably remain this. While I miss the all-day marathon drafts of yesteryear and lament on behalf of fun late-round draftees who made good, I’m also not sure if the unionization efforts at the minor league level would have been tolerated had the overall numbers not dropped. Besides, guys can still sign for six-figures as NDFAs.
As indicated, this year, we’re looking at college draft guys from 2019, of which there are a lot, and also high school draftees, U-19 international signings, and other holdovers from the 2018 class, with the caveat that there isn’t a whole lot there (Gilbert, Raleigh, and 33rd rounder Penn Murfee already headlining). Many of the qualifiers were traded away in the rebuild phase and Jerry likes to add guys early, but there’s still enough to warrant a good old-fashioned preview even if I’m not around for much else these days. The deadline is Friday, November 18th. I think.