Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are heading toward a crossroads in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations. 

The current CBA is expected to expire Dec. 1 and MLB recently gave the players union a new proposal that features several amendments to the current system. Among those proposal changes are stark changes to the MLB amateur draft and international recruiting, which could cause a complete change in how the Seattle Mariners build their farm system.

MLB has proposed a change to the amateur draft, which would cut the draft from 20 rounds to 12 and eliminate high school players from being draft eligible. Under the new proposal, players would need at least two years of college to be able to be drafted. The draft bonus pool would be cut from $358.7 million to $200 million.

A second proposal from MLB would install an international draft, which would consist of 12 rounds with a pool of $200 million. The minimum age for players to be drafted would be 18-years-old under the new proposal, compared to them currently being able to be signed at 16-years-old.

From MLB's perspective, this would be a cost-effective measure for the future. Teams would have to pay less money up front to prospects, and since prospects would be older when getting drafted, they'd be older when making major league debuts, which means they'd be older when hitting free agency, which means they'd be cheaper to sign.

For the Mariners, as well as several other teams, these new proposals would completely revamp how farm systems are built.

For Seattle, if these policies were instituted as recently as the start of this decade, the farm system would look completely different.

The Mariners current starting middle infielders, shortstop Colt Emerson and second baseman Cole Young were both drafted in high school. If the new CBA proposals were implemented, Emerson would nearly be wrapping up his first year out of college and could still be in the team's farm system.

One of Seattle's top 100 prospects, right-handed pitcher Ryan Sloan, would have recently concluded his last year of college and would just be eligible for the draft this summer.

In the MLB Draft, it's not abnormal for the Mariners (and other teams) to draft players lower slot so they can designate an upper-slot value for another player, often a high-end high school prospect. This was the approach they took with shortstop Nick Becker, who was picked in the second round of the 2025 MLB Draft out of Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J.

As for the international draft, this would limit the amount of players introduced into baseball farm systems every given year.

Under the current international recruiting system, teams are free to sign essentially any player they want within their signing bonus pool.

Some of these deals are agreed on verbally years before players are eligible to sign. It's not rare for teams to overhaul their international staff or system and to renege on those agree-upon deals and for other teams to come in the picture.

Seattle was the beneficiary of one such situation for a player eligible to sign in the 2027 international signing period.

Infielder Mairon De La Rosa had a deal in place with the New York Yankees, but the team went back on the deal with him as well as several other international players. The Mariners swooped in and are set to sign him in the 2027 cycle (barring the new CBA being ratified).

Under the MLB's international draft proposal, Seattle wouldn't be able to agree to a deal with him and De La Rosa's fate wouldn't be decided until the 2029 draft.

Several of the Mariners' top 100 prospects, including outfielder Lazaro Montes, INF/OF Michael Arroyo and shortstop Felnin Celesten, are all international signees. If the new proposal was implemented when those players signed, there's a chance that none of them could be with Seattle right now.

There's also the domino effect an international draft could permanently have with clubs' standing among players. If a draft is implemented, teams will be limited as to who they can select, and previously-agreed upon deals might not come to fruition.

The '27 CBA negotiations are still in their earliest phases, so there's a chance neither of these new draft formats happen. If they do, the Mariners could be in a position where they have to completely change their approach to scouting and player development.

Remember to join our MARINERS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Mariners fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!