![\"Freddie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260617_jko_aj4_099.jpg\")
Dodgers star Freddie Freeman blasted MLB proposal to refuse high schoolers to declare for the MLB draft. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\nFreddie Freeman had to do a double-take Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
When informed by a reporter of Major League Baseball\u2019s Thursday proposal to make major alterations to the amateur draft process \u2014 including the exclusion of high school players, the reduction of the draft from 20 to 12 rounds and the cutting of the overall signing bonus pool for draft picks almost in half \u2014 the future Hall of Fame first baseman looked shocked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dodgers star Freddie Freeman blasted MLB proposal to refuse high schoolers to declare for the MLB draft. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
When the details, which figure to become the latest flashpoint in MLB\u2019s labor negotiations, were repeated to him, he simply shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think maybe now the fans will start seeing that it\u2019s just money,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cBecause that\u2019s just cutting. It\u2019s all about money.\u201d<\/p>\n
The draft proposals, which were detailed by Baseball America<\/a> and ESPN<\/a>, were presented by the league to the MLB Players Association on Thursday, as part of ongoing and already contentious negotiations<\/a> between the sides ahead of the expiration of the league\u2019s current collective bargaining agreement on Dec. 1.<\/p>\n The MLBPA immediately balked at the idea, which would most notably prevent domestic prospects from entering the draft until after their sophomore season of college \u2014 as opposed to the current system which allows players to be drafted upon their high school graduation.<\/p>\n In a statement, the union called the proposals \u201cflat out bad for baseball, ones that would cripple the next generation of players and damage the future of our game.\u201d<\/p>\n Freeman, who was drafted straight out of Orange El Modena High School by the Braves in the second round in 2007, expressed his own extreme frustrations while speaking to The California Post on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n He called MLB\u2019s proposal \u201cridiculous\u201d and argued it was an example that the league\u2019s approach to labor negotiations has \u201cnot been about competitive balance, it\u2019s all about money.\u201d<\/p>\n He also highlighted the ways beginning his professional career straight after high school helped him develop into an eventual MVP and nine-time All-Star.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved coming out of high school,\u201d he said. \u201cIt got me into the professional ranks. It got me into being able to develop into that organization and how they expect you to play. They believed in you at such a young age.\u201d<\/p>\n Mookie Betts, a fellow MVP winner who was also drafted and signed out of high school by the Red Sox in the fifth round in 2011, similarly praised his development experience while expressing surprise at the league\u2019s latest proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cThat meant the world to me,\u201d Betts said. \u201cI feel like I developed faster, just because I was in it at 18. The younger you can get into it, the quicker you can develop to [the pro] game. Because this game is different than the college game. I\u2019m not saying either one is better or worse, but I just feel like that was my advantage. I got to learn a professional style of baseball at 18.\u201d<\/p>\n Betts also noted that had he gone the college route (which, under the current system, requires players to stay in school for at least three years), he wouldn\u2019t have been draft-eligible again until 2014 \u2014 the same year he made his MLB debut.<\/p>\n \u201cMy clock got expedited so much faster,\u201d Betts said. \u201cWhen it\u2019s all said and done, I\u2019ll have 18, 19 years in this game [at the MLB level], just because I got to start when I was able to start.\u201d<\/p>\n MLB\u2019s proposal, of course, is merely an opening stance. Over these CBA negotiations, it\u2019s likely that any changes to the current draft system \u2014 including MLB\u2019s push to create an international draft that would also be capped at 12 rounds \u2014 will have to be compromised.<\/p>\n How quickly the sides can find middle ground, however, seems ominous.<\/p>\n Already, they were at an impasse over the owners\u2019 push for a salary cap. And now, with a lockout looming and next season under threat if a new agreement can\u2019t be reached, the draft has become the latest sticking point.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to ESPN, MLB\u2019s objective for the changes is for more players to \u201cbenefit from both a college education and an elite development environment while reaching professional baseball \u2014 and ultimately the major leagues \u2014 more quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n The players, however, see it as nothing more than a cost-cutting measure; one that will limit opportunities for players to get into professional baseball initially and limit their earnings power over their career by delaying how quickly they could reach free agency.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s crazy to me,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cThat\u2019s all just a money issue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freddie Freeman had to do a double-take Friday afternoon. When informed by a reporter of Major League Baseball\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,485,12215,1187,591,6590,85],"class_list":["post-749007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-california","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-mookie-betts","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Freddie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AP_Rays_Dodgers_Baseball_51666-653be-0.jpg\")
Freeman was drafted straight out of Orange El Modena High School in Orange, CA by the Atlanta Braves in the second round in 2007. AP Photo\/William Liang<\/p>\n