David Ortiz Comes Out Against MLB's Proposal For International Draft
BOSTON (CBS) -- In the current round of bargaining between Major League Baseball and the players' union, the league is attempting to add an international draft to create a more structured process of teams adding young players from outside of the United States. David Ortiz, who once was one such player coming out of the Dominican Republic and will soon take his spot in Cooperstown as baseball's newest Hall of Famer, has come out against that change.
ESPN's Jeff Passan tweeted on Wednesday that Ortiz sent a voice message to a group chat that "has been widely shared in Dominican baseball circles" in which he "strongly" spoke out against the international draft.
Passan then spoke to Ortiz, who said he's not fully opposed to the international draft but believes more time is needed before such a system is instituted.
"The system in the Dominican is not ready to have a draft next year. The Dominican is not the U.S. You can't snap a finger and everything lines up to operate the right way. We've got a new president who's trying to improve things. We need to do this slowly," Ortiz told Passan. "Taking time -- that makes more sense. OK, guys, let's keep up this pace to do it three, four years from now. We sit down with the big-time players. We listen to what they have to say. If we're going to do it, let's do it right. Rushing it like this is not right."
Ortiz said his concern is with the young players in places like the Dominican Republic.
"Baseball is such a big thing in the Dominican. Baseball keeps kids off the streets. We don't want that to walk away from us. We want it to get better. That's my focus. Nothing else. We have the youth. People wanting to be me, Pedro, Pujols. We can't let that go away," Ortiz told Passan. "At the end of the day, I don't want those kids to be affected by it. I already played baseball. I had a career. I care about the kids being treated right. I understand MLB wants to have control over everything they do, but you're not going to change the system overnight."
The proposal from MLB stems from a purported effort to curb corruption in the training of young players outside of the U.S., but players -- notably Fernando Tatis Jr. -- have raised concerns that such a change will prevent some young players from entering professional baseball. Passan tweeted that Ortiz's stance is one that would involve prominent names with experience in the international system to help construct a new system.
