With shortened 2020 MLB Draft, see D-backs who were late-round picks

The 2020 MLB Draft will only be five rounds, according to the Associated Press, a far cry from the usual 40-round marathon of a normal year unimpacted by the coronavirus.

That means there will be 35 fewer rounds for amateur athletes looking to make their first MLB experience.

Though the bulk of major league talent is picked in the first few rounds, there are players who either develop late, scouts simply miss, or mesh better with minor league development systems than college or prep.

How big an impact would this have had on the Arizona Diamondbacks roster?

Of the 29 players listed on the active roster, 21 were either drafted in the first five rounds or signed as amateur free agents out of a different country.

Here are the remaining eight who would not have been selected if the draft was only five rounds:

• Stephen Vogt, 12th round of the 2007 draft
• Kole Calhoun, eighth round of the 2010 draft
• Robbie Ray, 12th round of the 2010 draft
• Jake Lamb, sixth round of the 2012 draft
• Tim Locastro, 13th round of the 2013 draft
• Stefan Chrichton, 23rd round of the 2013 draft
• Kevin Ginkel, 16th round of the 2014 draft
• Josh Rojas, 26th round of the 2017 draft

If not selected, these players would have to sign as undrafted free agents. That’s common in baseball, particularly for international prospects who sign from their home countries.

So there’s still a chance Arizona would have got them, but they would have had to scour through the thousands of names and potentially outbid an opposing offer.

Of those players the D-backs would not have been able to draft, Ray and Lamb are the only two who have been major contributors to the team.

Vogt and Calhoun have been solid players at the MLB level for years, and the rest are still trying to break through. Rojas in particular has made a meteoric rise, already getting MLB time despite being drafted in the 26th round just three years ago.

Therefore, few players on this D-backs team would have been directly affected if a five-round draft had always been in place. What about past teams?

In the eighth round of the 2009 MLB Draft, the Diamondbacks selected first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Eleventh in WAR among active players in the league, Goldschmidt was the face of the franchise for much of the last decade.

Pitcher Brandon Webb also wouldn’t have been picked if the draft only went five rounds. Arizona selected him in the eighth round in 2000.

Other D-backs contributors over the years who were drafted beyond the fifth round include Steve Finley (13th round, 1987), Lyle Overbay (18th round, 1999), Chad Tracy (7th round, 2001), Chris Young (16th round, 2001), Mark Reynolds (16th round, 2004), Josh Collmenter (15th round, 2007) and, a player who was only around for half a season but would have had a much-altered career: J.D. Martinez, picked in the 20th round in 2009.

Around the league, Goldshmidt isn’t the only player high on the active WAR chart to be selected after the fifth round. Albert Pujols, the active leader, was  drafted in the 13th round in 1999.

Ian Kinsler, drafted by the Rangers in the 17th round in 2003 (and by the D-backs in 2000 and 2001, though he did not sign with Arizona either time), is seventh in WAR among active players.

In total, six of the top 30 active batters in WAR were drafted outside the top five rounds.

The only active pitchers in the top 30 in WAR who were drafted outside the top five rounds are Jacob deGrom, picked in the ninth round of 2010, Kyle Kendricks, an eighth-round pick in 2011, and Dallas Keuchel, who was a seventh-rounder in 2009.

Award voting in 2019, outside of deGrom winning the Cy Young, leaned heavily against players drafted outside the top five rounds.

Marcus Semien (sixth round) finished third in the American League MVP race, but he and deGrom were the only two such players to be among top-10 MVP finishers. deGrom was the only top-five Cy Young candidate in either league to be drafted so late.

All in all: Most of the best players are drafted early. But there are a few outliers that would potentially be major losses for the league including Pujols, deGrom and Goldschmidt, if they were to go unsigned as well.

Talent can be found outside the top five rounds. For most teams, though, the game-changers come earlier or from international waters.

The start date of the draft will remain June 10 and the deadline for players to sign with teams will be pushed back from July 10 to Aug. 1, according to the Associated Press.

The draft will be two days long instead of three.

Teams will not have a limit on the number of undrafted free agents they can sign, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Such players can receive a maximum of $20,000.

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