Gonzales: Minor league opportunities in MLB not as plentiful as they once were
The Cubs' trip to Williamsport, Pa., in 2019 brought baseball back to its grass-roots.
Manager Joe Maddon and nearly all of his players mingled with players at the Little League World Series, and some even took a cardboard ride down the famed hill behind the outfield fence.
A few hours later, the Cubs beat the Pirates at quaint Bowman Field, then a Class-A park with lighting improved to meet major league standards.
But Bowman Field no longer hosts a Class-A franchise, a victim of Major League Baseball's purging of 42 minor league franchises before the 2021 season.
Neither does Northwestern Medicine Field, where the Kane County Cougars provided a special blend of perennially talented prospects, large crowds and a family-friendly atmosphere for six major league organizations.
Small victories like Major League Baseball's decision to table its proposal to trim each organization's pool of minor league players from 180 to as low as 150 are rare for player development officials and minor league players deemed as late bloomers.
Overdue decisions to improve compensation and housing hardly offset the significant slash of minor league teams that affected communities embracing their summer teams, and the trimming of the amateur draft in 2020 from 40 rounds to five (due to COVID) and 20 rounds in 2021 - which could remain intact for the foreseeable future.
Due to the cuts in the amateur draft, many amateurs returned to college or junior college, which has created a glut of players on rosters. The transfer portal allows players to explore other programs offering a greater opportunity to play, but the chance to pursue a pro career becomes more challenging because of the shortening of the draft.
Undrafted players can sign as free agents, but teams tend to be more selective.
"I expected the Giants to draft catchers," said Bob Brenly, who signed in 1976 as a 22-year-old undrafted free agent out of Ohio University to fill a rookie league roster. "It was my job to outlast all the prospects."
The Giants drafted three high school catchers in the first 11 rounds of the 1978 draft, but Brenly benefitted from a fourth season at Class-A Fresno and eventually embarked on a nine-year major league career.
"I feel sorry for those guys who are going to slip through the cracks," said Brenly, a former popular Cubs television commentator currently serving with the Diamondbacks. "For every first-round pick who makes it big in the big leagues, there's probably a dozen guys who didn't get drafted who turn out to be productive major league ballplayers. Some of those guys who outlast the prospects aren't going to get that opportunity any more."
The White Sox's amateur scouting and player development departments took great pride in the identification and ascent of left-hander Mark Buehrle, who soared from a 38th-round pick in 1998 to one of the best left-handed pitchers of his era.
Infielder David Bote, an 18th-round pick in 2012, could have been affected had the Collective Bargaining Agreement included the trimming of minor league rosters.
Bote spent most of his first five seasons at the Class-A level before making a late ascent to the Cubs in 2018 and delivering clutch hits, albeit in a part-time role.
Among Bote's teammates in the Arizona Rookie League in 2012 who reached the majors sooner were Albert Almora Jr., Jorge Soler, Rafael Lopez, Pierce Johnson, Dillon Maples, Paul Blackburn (Oakland) and Daniel Vogelbach (with Seattle).
Bote, 28, is in the midst of a five-year, $15 million contract while recovering on schedule following left shoulder surgery.
Despite the scrapping of plans to trim the player pool, opportunities for under-evaluated players, late bloomers and player development positions remain threatened.
"To be very transparent with this group, I'm still trying to figure out why we have (only) 20 rounds and minor league contraction," Dayton Moore, the Royals' President of Baseball Operations, said last Sunday on the Masters of Baseball podcast.
"Things like that can't even enter my mind. We want the funnel to be wide. We want to give players opportunities because we all know they all develop in different stages. There's not an easy way to predict when a player has finished developing."