More than five years after Major League Baseball applied a drastic sanction to the Atlanta Braves for irregularities in international recruitment, such as early agreements and ‘combos,’ the league fails to stop the increasingly early deals of the teams with children, more and more children.
A little over a month after the 2023 transfer market opened, teams are already closing word agreements with players from the 2027 class. Their contracts will be signed at the beginning of 2028 if the current contracts system is maintained. Free agency.
This is how DL was told by multiple industry sources who asked to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to speak. One of the cases would involve a child who was still 11 years old and would have reached an understanding that would guarantee him around US$4 million within 65 months.
It would be about a pre-adolescent who barely reaches five feet tall, and his “talking” has caused outrage among hundreds of coaches who understand that this type of agreement prevents the signing of currently available players and impacts subsequent markets. To 2027 and reduces the value that the class can achieve.
“This is crazy, this is fucked up. Who wanted draft before? But this (the draw proposed by the MLB) must be entered. There are many 2023 and 2024 kids who are ready (ready to sign), the draft is the salvation to calm this down,” said a preparer.
current availability
The news comes just days after a team expense report as of February 8 was leaked. On the tab, clubs like the Astros and the Nationals would have already exhausted the entire budget for 2023, while five still exceeded a million dollars in their non-sanctionable box.
But, the coaches complain these teams, which have already signed the most interesting players with pre-agreements, are reluctant to offer significant bonuses for talent that is up to the task.
“You have to enter a draft to calm down the agreements, take me away, we are all going to earn more money with a draft, because the one who is assured two million today by 2027 when he is 16, how much will it cost. Early agreements never pay what the player costs, they give you half,” says another coach.
