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Olney: MLB Considering Draft Spending Penalties, Getting Rid Of Comp Picks

Buster Olney tweets regarding potential changes to baseball's collective bargaining agreement. It looks like parties involved are discussing a ceiling for draft bonuses for the first 10 rounds. There would be no penalties for breaking slot recommendations, but if a team exceeded the overall ceiling, it would have to pay a tax the first time, then would lose a "top pick" the second time. Clearly, this sounds awful for the Pirates, but we'll have to see the details.

Also, teams are considering getting rid of first-round compensation picks, which is a good thing. Overall, it sounds like this system would primarily favor established players - as Olney points out, their values on the free agent market wouldn't decrease as a result of compensation picks. Also, this system would reduce the amount of money teams spend on the draft, which would free teams to spend more money on veterans.