Texas Rangers: Is canceling the 2020 MLB Draft a possibility?

Could the Texas Rangers and the rest of the MLB see the 2020 Draft canceled in an effort to conserve money during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Per a report on Thursday, Major League Baseball is considering skipping the 2020 Draft as concerns about cash flow during the COVID-19 pandemic continue to increase. Ronald Blum of the Associated Press was the first to break the story that Major League Baseball was considering methods to address a drop in revenue cause by the delay in the start of the season. Along with the possibility of forgoing the 2020 Draft would be the rescheduling of the international signing period meaning the Texas Rangers, and other clubs, would not see the influx of talent that we have become accustomed to in recent years.

Logical concerns about the viability of a draft go beyond the cash concerns with stem from the $400 million paid out per year in signing bonuses. . We’ve already seen the majority of college baseball games across the country be cancelled for the remainder of the season including the NCAA College World Series. That puts a curveball into the scouting jobs of MLB teams who will now have to make draft decisions without a spring’s workload to evaluate. Additionally, scouting around the league has ground to a halt as the league tries to limit the spread of the Coronavirus.

A cancellation of the draft would likely qualify as the most drastic step taken by any of the major leagues in the US. At this point, the idea still seems far fetched and hard to pull off. The league is currently engaged in discussions with the Player’s Association about the draft, among a bevy of other topics including service time and how to address player payments during the season delay.

The Texas Rangers are set to pick 14th overall in the 2020 Draft looking to build off a 2019 Draft in which they made a number of strong selections headlined by Josh Jung. The 2020 Draft is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, June 10th and the draft had been moved to Omaha, Nebraska to coincide with the now canceled College World Series.