An International Draft in the Next CBA Is What’s Best for MLB

It’s no secret that Major League Baseball is a global game, and one that’s only expanded in recent memory. As of Opening Day 2026, over 26% of players on MLB rosters were born outside the United States, as the sport has seen a dramatic rise in talent from across the globe finding a place in the league.

However, while Major League Baseball has become an even bigger, beautiful melting pot of cultures from across the world, there are some underlying issues with how this talent is acquired. For decades, the system in which MLB acquires talent from outside the United States and Canada has functioned like the Wild West, and despite repeated attempts to bring order to this process, many problems still remain.

Corrupt trainers, coaches, and agents have taken advantage of some of the brightest, most talented young talents the game has to offer, and these stories are devastating. Kids are devoting their entire lives to baseball, even when that means lying about their ages by forging birth certificates, using steroids before they can legally drive in the United States, and leaving important early education behind in pursuit of a brighter future in baseball.

At its very best, the current international system functions in a truly amazing way to provide kids from all over the globe with a chance to live out their dreams of playing in MLB. Unfortunately, the polar opposite can be said for this system at it’s very worst, as it can work as form of glorified human trafficking that hides behind the promises of a brighter future.

Given the issues this system has faced, it comes as no surprise that MLB has routinely discussed the idea of introducing an international draft into the sport during CBA discussions. The hope is that a system like this would add more structure to this process and bring order to the disorderly chaos that currently exists in this pipeline.

With the current CBA set to expire on December 1st, the fears of a potential lockout and prolonged work stoppage have been the main focus of these discussions. However, this expiring CBA could finally be the point that allows MLB to implement an international draft, and it should consider doing so.

In a time full of negativity and uncertainty about what the CBA negotiations will bring, fans should take solace in knowing that at least one problematic system could be curbed this winter.

A Closer Look at the International Dilemma

As mentioned in the introduction, the current international process is dramatically polarizing in terms of the benefits and downsides it brings to young players around the world. For every success story, there’s an equal or greater number of heartbreaking misfortunes, and it’s a reality that’s hard to confront.

For example, back in April of this year, ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez reported on the devastating story of  Ismael Ureña Pérez. A teenage prospect from the Dominican Republic, Pérez passed away after his organs failed due to repeated steroid abuse at a local youth baseball academy.

Crushed by his death, the story circulated around the island for months, as Pérez’s mother tried to face the insurmountable pain of losing her child at such a young age. Pérez’s death is just one example of the tragedy that has been inflicted by the lack of regulation on the International Free Agent system in areas like the Dominican Republic.

In that same story, Gonzalez spoke to a team executive who spent years scouting in the Dominican Republic, and he had powerful things to say about the struggles in these areas.

“Everything is messy,” the executive Gonzalez spoke to said. “It’s messy because we’re making it messy, because we won’t f—ing regulate it, and it just keeps going and going.”

This cycle that keeps going has been seen in more areas than the tragic deaths of young players in this area, too. Gonzalez also reported back in August that MLB was set to suspend David Severino, a once-prized possession of the Cleveland Guardians’ future 2029 international signing class.

The reason for this suspension? An elaborate scheme to fake his age, which included a fake death and the forging of legal documents to complete the ruse. The scandal went so far, in fact, that phony tombstones were planted in a local gravesite, which goes to show the length in which these events can go to.

The falsifying of age documents in the international scene is a rampant issue. The most recent example is just that: the most recent event in a litany of players who have attempted to do the same thing. In that same story where Gonzalez reported on the Severino scandal, sources he spoke to mentioned that they had heard about fake birth documents in the past, as this issue isn’t a new revelation.

Not only have kids passed away, faced physical abuse, or attempted to fake their identities to make their MLB dreams come true, but these kids are potentially destroying their futures in other ways, too. According to MLB’s own internal research, only about 6% of international signees reach the Major Leagues, and over 40% of them are released within three years.

In order to put themselves in a position to be signed, kids sometimes forego their basic education or the foundational skills they must build to live a sustainable life outside of baseball. While MLB organizations have done a better job of investing in their futures outside of baseball through schooling at their development camps, this is still a problem that needs to be further addressed.

Why an International Draft Makes Sense

Now that we’ve established the foundation for concern regarding the international free agent market, we can expand our sights beyond the issues and instead search for a solution. This is where the idea of an international draft comes in, as this system could help curb a lot of these issues we previously laid out.

For starters, the implementation of a draft brings order to the disorderly chaos that currently exists in this environment. Instead of handshake deals will be faced to wait until following the draft to begin fully negotiating, which could help take some of the pressure that currently exists off young kids.

Under the current system, children as young as 12 or 13 years old become targets for verbal commitments, which try to lock them into informal, non-binding agreements years before they’re legally permitted to sign at 16. This multi-year vacuum is where independent trainers exert control, pushing players in ways that can hurt them physically or alter their lives in other, massive ways.

An international draft would work to nullify the incentive for these underground bidding wars. When a clear acquisition pipeline is regulated, enforced, and formalized, the hurtful shadow economy that currently harbors these types of scandals will come to a close.

Going one step further, potentially exploring raising the eligibility age to 18 years old to more closely match the typical MLB Draft standard could be a worthwhile task as well. This further keeps the pressure off young kids without majorly altering their development pipelines, as MLB teams already have routine success developing 18-year-old prospects.

Ultimately, one of the main concerns surrounding this current pipeline that we should continue to acknowledge is education and ensuring that these players are set up to succeed off the field. As we established earlier, many of these prospects will never make it to the major leagues, and it should be the league’s responsibility to ensure these players are taken care of. The current system has failed at this repeatedly and let down the players whose careers were shorter than expected.

While teams have done a good job of ensuring their prospects are well educated through development facilities, there is still work to be done. A draft with a minimum age of 18 is especially helpful here, as most prospects shouldn’t sacrifice their key educational years in pursuit of their careers, while teams can still help fill in the remaining gaps at facilities once they’re drafted.

The expectation is that along the path to implementing such a change, the league would face lots of pushback. Some individuals may argue that this is another cost-cutting method, or a way that limits competitiveness in the market by limiting the ability of teams to have an edge in the market by developing international talent at a high success rate.

Despite this, these points can be refuted. For example, the draft can use slot values just like the MLB Draft, which helps guarantee a minimum salary at certain picks, and a total lump sum that will be spent on their players. Also, teams that excel at developing talent can still do so, as the organizations that succeed the most often do so by finding hidden gems, or underrated players. Because of this, there shouldn’t be much of an urgency for other teams to draft all of these players.

In the past, MLB has tried to regulate this pipeline time and time again, but each attempt has fallen short of its desired outcomes.

When MLB introduced bonus pools, big market teams ignored these spending limits, paying the penalties for going over the limits anyway. Once MLB placed a hard cap on spending, negotiations with players were pushed earlier and earlier, as teams tried to gain an edge by negotiating with players earlier in hopes of saving money. When MLB worked to vet trainers in 2020, these shady activities were pushed further underground, which may have caused even more harm in some scenarios.

The bottom line is that previous regulations haven’t worked, and it’s a legitimate concern that further regulatory actions will follow the same path. It’s time for MLB to be more proactive in protecting its players, adding more order to this pipeline through an international draft, one that protects the excellent young stars that countries around the globe produce.

A Path Forward Through the Expiring CBA

With a market full of human rights issues, structural concerns, and a proposed path forward, the next step becomes: How can we ensure that this becomes a reality? The answer lies in the weeks and months ahead, as MLB trudges towards the dreaded expiration of the CBA, an event that could shape the sport forever.

Although many conversations have surrounded the idea of a potential salary cap or other league-altering decisions, this is the perfect opportunity for MLB to make real, positive changes in the international scene. We’ve seen the owners and the Players’ Union discuss this idea in the past, and it could be on the table yet again this winter.

The best part? The MLBPA and the owners could even use this issue as a bargaining tool to get one another to the table and agree on something, which could help bridge gaps in other places, too. This proposal is mutually beneficial, and something that both sides should work towards in hopes of protecting the game’s youth.

As is the case with any CBA-related discussion, there will be challenges, pushback, and controversy. But this is a rare chance for MLB to make a real effort for positive change and help those who need it the most. An international draft should be the correct path forward, and it’s time that it becomes a reality.