Bruce Levine, Len Kasper and Taylor McGregor joined host Cole Wright on Cubs 360 Daily, presented by Miller Lite, to discuss the 5-round MLB Draft and how that will affect organizations. 

In a cost-cutting move from Major League Baseball, the MLB Draft has been reduced to 5 rounds. Teams can sign an unlimited amount of undrafted players for $20,000 each. Our panel discussed whether a 5-round draft could be bad for the MLB.

Levine started the discussion by saying it would only feature the top 150 players and doesn’t exclude from signing other players.

“I believe what will happen is more college players and high school players will go back and play amateur ball or go to college if you’re a high school player,” Levine stated. “If you’re not drafted in the top 5, you’re not going to sell yourself short by signing for $20k. You’re going to see a glut of players out there going to college, you’re going to see some playing amateur ball….to make sure they get their money this year and the year after.”

Kasper is worried about player development in the minor leagues in different organizations.

“It’s all bad and I think everybody in every sector here is going to take a hit,” Kasper said. “And the other part of it, I know has been written about a little bit, is the idea of you can’t have any shenanigan’s. You can’t have any under the table deals where we’ll give you your $20k, but we’ll take care of you later.”

McGregor believed that the biggest impact that will hurt baseball will be on the college baseball teams.

“Now, you have those players who would have been drafted out of high school and skipped college to go play professional ball, they’re now playing collegiately,” McGregor said. “Just the amount of players who are going to be at these college programs or at least desired to be, these college coaches have a lot of decisions to make.”

Catch Cubs 360 Daily, presented by Miller Lite weeknights at 6 p.m. on Marquee Sports Network.