St. Louis Cardinals: MLB Draft date confirmed, but not much more

In the latest news about the highly debated MLB Draft, the St. Louis Cardinals will make their first pick on June 10, what else do we know?

The 2020 St. Louis Cardinals season isn’t the only thing that’s being drastically changed due to the current pandemic. As we’ve already noted, the MLB Draft also won’t be a normal one.

Already, the draft has been shortened to a maximum of 10 rounds, and the changes don’t stop there. Like the NFL draft, the MLB Draft will be virtual and it could be as few as five rounds.

At the end of April, the MLBPA supposedly rejected one of the MLB’s plans for the draft, but it seems at this point that the only thing that’s been agreed upon is the date of the draft.

There were plenty of discussions about moving it back past the scheduled June 10 start date, but apparently the date will stay on track. I would assume that plans to move the date back were scrapped when the league saw how well the NFL Draft went. If I’m the MLB, that is all I’m going for.

More from St Louis Cardinals News

• The St. Louis Cardinals sign catcher Willson Contreras
• Cardinals: Day 3 of Winter Meetings brings first move and catcher rumors
• Cardinals Rumors: Growing buzz that St. Louis will sign Willson Contreras
• Cardinals Rumors: Here is what Oakland is asking for Sean Murphy
• The St. Louis Cardinals’ 2024 rotation needs work

The NFL Draft (the most viewed in history), humanized so many aspects of the NFL coaches’ and the draftees’ lives and brought their much-hated commissioner, Roger Goodell, a bit of love surprisingly. Rob Manfred would be smart to try and get in on that love fest.

Also, who wouldn’t want to potentially get a chance to see inside John Mozeliak’s home?

The difficult thing about the MLB Draft though will be that teams will be drafting with no 2020 spring season to go off of. College baseball was canceled almost as soon as it started and High School leagues may have been the same.

College players can change their draft placement dramatically in one season, and teams are kind of drafting in the dark because of it. While a full-length draft wouldn’t make sense, just 10 rounds of a draft will decimate the lower levels of the minor leagues.

The other changes to the draft are that any signing bonuses after the fifth round will be 50% of last year’s values. For players not drafted, their signing bonus will be capped at $20k, a huge change from years past where undrafted players could get over $100k in a signing bonus.

This is not fair to college athletes or highschoolers who are going to be drafted later than the fifth round by any means. However, the Cardinals have five picks in the top 100, and they will have a chance to keep building whatever minor league affiliates they have left.

The exact specifics of the draft will need to be agreed on soon, but for now, having a definite date is a good start.

Draft news will be baseball news, and hopefully the draft comes right around the time baseball is about to start ramping up again. As we get to within a month of the draft, our draft coverage will pick up as with the 21st overall pick, the Cardinals will have a good chance to have some studs still available.