Scouting report: Dylan Crews, OF, LSU

May 2024 · 2 minute read

In 2023, there are two teams with eight minor-league affiliates (Diamondbacks, Giants), and there are 10 teams with just six affiliates. A decade ago, half of all MLB teams had at least eight minor-league affiliates, and there wasn’t a single organization with fewer than seven. The minor leagues are shrinking. There’s a reason why the Wikipedia page for defunct minor-league teams is spread out over six pages. (Rest in peace, Leaksville-Draper-Spray Triplets.)

The latest contraction of the minor leagues was, if you can believe it, related to money. Regardless if baseball saw that minor-league unionization was coming or not, the net effect was fewer minor-league salaries to pay and fewer cities with professional baseball. Seems like it’s not great for the product or the promotion of the sport, but I’m just some chump with a bad haircut.

The other effect: fewer rounds in the MLB Draft. After the freakish five-round 2020 draft in the heart of the pandemic, baseball settled on just 20 rounds, which is far fewer than the drafts of the past.

I hate it. Not only is it robbing us of amusing connections that never came to be (Tim Lincecum, Cubs’ 48th-rounder), delightful names that we’ll never get a chance to ponder (Lincecum was drafted between Jean-Michel Rochon-Salvas and Johntavis Character) and scores of prospects to follow and study, but it’s thinning the overall talent pool for baseball going forward. Some of the undrafted players will sign with major-league organizations, and some will go to independent leagues and get discovered, but plenty will simply go home, wondering what could have been.

Read more here about the best players in Giants history who were drafted in the 20th round or later. In another timeline, maybe they’re on another team, or maybe they’re coaching at their old high school.

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57y6KtnmWSobyov46mo5tllKeup8CMa2dra198srGmoa1pr6%2BCe8Vwv6eviZylhquEqoPBaA%3D%3D