NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball owners proposed banning high school players from signing with major league teams, raising the age for international amateurs and slashing the money spent on signing bonuses in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement Thursday.
The amateur draft for players residing in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico would be cut from 20 rounds to 12 beginning in 2027 under the proposal Major League Baseball made during a bargaining
session with the players' association. An identical 12-round draft would be started for international prospects, a proposal the union has rejected in the past.
Starting in 2028, a prospect for the amateur draft would have to be at least 20 years old by the Sept. 1 of his signing year and two years removed from the graduating year of his high school class.
Raising signing ages would likely lead to players being older when they become eligible for free agency, which currently requires six years of major league service.
For international amateurs, the age to sign would be raised to 18 on the Sept. 1 of their signing year, up from 17.
Each separate draft would have $200 million in signing pools in 2027. There would be hard caps for each draft.
Teams would be able to trade draft picks but a club couldn't trade its first-round pick in consecutive drafts. A team couldn't acquire more than three additional selections among the first three rounds.
Spending on signing bonuses for players eligible for the 2025 amateur draft totaled about $402 million.
Teams have spent about $193 million on signing bonus for international amateurs in 2026. The current signing period starts Jan. 15 each year, but the initial international draft would be no earlier than Sept. 2027.
Bargaining began May 13 and the sides exchanged initial proposals two weeks later as management proposed a salary cap for the first time since 1994, which resulted in a 7 1/2-month strike and the first cancellation of the World Series in 90 years,
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