Gasparino: Five-round draft also may be deepest draft in last five years
by Rowan Kavner
The deepest draft Dodgers vice president of amateur scouting Billy Gasparino has seen in the last five years also happens to be just five rounds long.
Among the many effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is a shortened 2020 Major League Baseball Draft, which has been reduced significantly from its typical 40 rounds. Gasparino and the Dodgers have six selections to use among the robust talent pool offered by this year’s draft, which takes place this Wednesday and Thursday.
“It’s probably the deepest draft in the last five years, especially I think in the first round,” Gasparino said. “The college pitching group and the high school hitting group is really strong. I would say it’s a strong draft overall, and those two groups probably stand out more than the others.”
The Dodgers don’t make their first selection until the 29th pick of the first round, but they hold three of the draft’s first 66 selections. They select 60th overall in the second round, then they have the 66th overall pick in Competitive Balance Round B courtesy of their trade with Minnesota that sent Kenta Maeda to the Twins.
After the five rounds, undrafted players can be signed for a maximum of $20,000. Because of that limit, Gasparino said he wouldn’t be surprised if a number of talented players return to school — potentially creating a loaded 2021 draft class.
While the short draft could eliminate some of the creativity that’s helped the Dodgers add to one of baseball’s best farm systems in recent years, it’s a reality all teams have to deal with. The top three rounds are still protected picks, creating what Gasparino believes might be a “free-for-all” situation in rounds four and five.
“You’re going to have a lot of college players jockeying to get taken in that fourth or fifth round,” Gasparino said. “The alternative of $20,000 after is just much less than the money they could make in the fourth round.”
Beyond the length of the draft, this year presents a number of challenges for the scouting community. Namely, the cancellation of spring seasons caused by the pandemic leaves scouts will little to analyze from recent months.
“For instance, I think the colleges played about 25 percent of the games,” Gasparino said. “How much weight do you put in that performance — good or bad — versus the history of their track record?”
While teams have less film on players than in previous years, one benefit Gasparino and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said this year is teams can be more thorough analyzing the information they do have available.
In recent weeks and months, Gasparino, Friedman and the Dodgers’ scouting staff have gone through extensive virtual meetings for hours each day discussing roughly 160 players who could be selected this week.
The first round (selections 1–29) and Competitive Balance Round A (selections 30–37) will take place Wednesday, June 10, while the remainder of the draft is on Thursday, June 11.
