The night of the MLB amateur draft is a good time to discuss the abolition of the process. The draft as it stands today gives the players another reason to be angry with owners. Amateurs should be free agents, able to sign for what the market will bear, especially if their careers are going to be controlled by a team for up to 12 seasons (minors and majors).

At least prior to a few years ago, drafted players could at least negotiate a deal, and threaten to not sign if their number wasn’t met. Now, with slots, baseball pretty much dictates how much they make.

That’s why I was happy to see a Japanese team go after a drafted player who did not sign. MLB lowered the price of amateur talent with draft rules and international signing limits, so it would be a good time for Japan and other leagues around the world to grab that talent. I hope that happens, that MLB loses talent. It would force them to rethink how they pay amateurs, and it would improve the quality of play of other leagues around the world.

I would love to see universal free agency, but at this point I would like to see some way of players and teams being able to negotiate with a range of players, based on some kind of ranking (maybe draft lists submitted by teams). So the top five teams could negotiate with the top ten players; the next five teams could negotiate with six through fifteen, etc. It would keep the rich teams from getting all the good talent, but give everyone the chance to find the best fit.