April 2, 2021

Foreign Drop

The number of MLB foreign-born players dropped for the 4th straight year:

More than 28% of Major League Baseball players were born outside the 50 states. That represents a drop for the fourth straight season, although this decrease was particularly small.

MLB said Friday there were 256 such players of the 906 on Opening Day rosters, injured lists, the restricted list and the paternity list.

AP via ESPN.com

The article mentions no reason behind this drop. The collective bargaining agreement signed in 2016, however, put restrictions on international signings:

There is no international draft, as Major League Baseball had initially proposed, but teams will now have bonus pools with hard caps. Gone are the days of teams being allowed to blow past their bonus pools, pay an overage tax and be limited to signings for no more than $300,000 the following two signing periods.

BaseballAmerica.com

The implementation of the draft in the middle 1960s made signing North American players more expensive, so teams eventually looked to countries not covered by the draft to find cheap talent. For the last few years, that talent has become more expensive, so, surprise, surprise, MLB is bringing in less talent from those markets.

Let’s go back to all amateurs being free agents, and let a free market decide how much these players are worth.

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