Cleveland prepares for shortened amateur draft after altered scouting process

The Indians, along with the other 29 clubs, had their scouting processes unhinged around the middle of March when Major League Baseball was shut down due to concerns regarding the coronavirus outbreak.

All in-person contact related to scouting was halted. Instead of continuing the seemingly never-ending process of scouting several hundred potential picks as usual, scouts across the league returned to their homes and families.

Plane tickets were traded in for Zoom logins. Video scouting became an even bigger part to the puzzle. In the race to collect as much information as humanly possible prior to June 10, all 30 teams were forced to quickly adapt.

“I think we’ve all become very adept at Zoom,” Scott Barnsby, the Indians’ director of amateur scouting, told reporters during a Zoom call last week. “Right around March 11, everyone came off the road. I remember our number one priority was to make sure they were safe at some, that their families were safe as well. ... After we worked through that, it was time to say, ‘Where are we in terms of information to prepare for the draft?’ ... So then we had to do gap analysis to say, ‘OK, what information do we have? What do we still need to get to feel really good about making a decision in June?’”

The draft itself will also operate in a different fashion than in years past. As part of the negotiations between the players’ union and the owners in March, the former agreed to allow the latter to shorten the draft to five rounds. The owners elected to do so, drastically shortening the draft (normally 40 rounds) and shrinking draft boards.

Thus, the Indians will have six selections in the 2020 amateur draft. The first 37 picks of the draft will be televised on MLB Network on Wednesday night, with the remaining selections falling on Thursday. The Indians will make two selections on Wednesday night with the No. 23 (first round) and No. 36 (competitive balance around A) overall picks. The Indians’ bonus pool for those six selections is roughly $7.6 million.

That will leave several hundred amateur players undrafted who normally would have had a more straightforward decision regarding their future. Those who are undrafted will have a few days to contact the league to say they’re going to or staying in school, and that they don’t wish to be contacted by teams. Anyone else? They’re free to sign with any of the 30 clubs starting at 9 a.m. on June 14. Those players can sign for a maximum of $20,000, and they won’t count toward the bonus pool allotment.

In that way, teams will effectively be trying to recruit prospects to join their system. A team’s reputation for player development, thus, is key.

“One of the things that’s been really cool as we’ve had conversations with players and agents, many of them have mentioned just the job our player development system has done,” Barnsby said. “That is really important to people we’ve talked to, getting in the right system. Typically in the draft, they don’t have a choice. After the draft at this point, they will have a choice.”

CREDIT: BY RYAN LEWIS AKRON BEACON JOURNAL