How Many Rounds are in the Baseball Draft?

Learn about the baseball draft process and how many rounds are in the draft.

Introduction

The MLB draft is held every June and consists of 40 rounds. teams are allowed to have up to 60 picks in the draft, but most choose to have fewer.

The Different Types of Drafts

The baseball draft began in 1965 and has gone through many different changes since then. There are now three different types of drafts- the Rule 4 Draft, the Rule 5 Draft, and the Minor League Draft. The Rule 4 Draft is the most common and it is the one that most people are familiar with.

The Rule 4 Draft

The Rule 4 Draft, commonly known as the Major League Baseball draft, is held every June. Any player who has not signed a professional contract with a Major League team is eligible to be drafted. Each team has one pick in each of the first two rounds of the draft, plus one pick in each subsequent round.

The first two rounds of the draft are conducted on the same day, with rounds 3-10 following on the next day. The draft continues on subsequent days until all 40 rounds are complete. A total of 1,215 players were drafted in 2016.

The draft order is determined by reverse order of the previous season’s standings, with ties broken by a formula based on regular season winning percentage and playoff results. The team with the worst record in baseball gets the first pick, and the World Series champion gets the last pick (or penultimate pick, if there is a tie for last place).

The First-Year Player Draft

The First-Year Player Draft, also known as the Rule 4 Draft, is Major League Baseball’s (MLB) primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on the previous season’s standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick.

In general, high school players are drafted after their senior year and college players are drafted after their junior year. Once drafted, a player must be signed to a contract by the team that drafted him or he will become a free agent and eligible to sign with any team that offers him a contract.

The Free Agent Draft

The Amateur Free Agent Draft (or simply the Draft) is an annual event in Major League Baseball (MLB) in which teams select eligible high school and collegiate players. The draft order is determined based on the previous season’s standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick.
In early drafts, players were often signed to one-year contracts worth a few thousand dollars. In 1987, however, MLB implemented a minimum salary for drafted players of $10,000. The draft has remained relatively unchanged since then, except for a few rule tweaks here and there; for instance, the rule that allowed draft picks to be traded was instituted in 1989.
The first Amateur Free Agent Draft was held in 1965; it included high school players for the first time and was conducted via conference call. The most recent draft took place in 2016 and included 1,216 total selections.

The Number of Rounds in Each Draft

The MLB Draft is composed of 40 rounds, while the MiLB (Minor League Baseball) Draft has only 5 rounds. The MLB Draft is the more popular of the two, as it is more widely known. The MLB Draft is also more important, as it is the draft that players must go through in order to be eligible to play in the MLB.

The Rule 4 Draft

The Rule 4 Draft, commonly known as the MLB draft, is an annual event in which teams from the American League and National League select amateur baseball players. The draft order is determined by reverse order of the previous season’s standings, with the team with the worst record receiving the first pick. The draft consists of 40 rounds, with each team making one selection in each round.

The First-Year Player Draft

The First-Year Player Draft, commonly referred to as the Rule 4 Draft, is Major League Baseball’s (MLB) primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on the previous season’s standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick. The most recent First-Year Player Draft was held on June 10th, 2019.

1st Round
The first round of the draft consists of 33 picks and provides each team with an opportunity to select one player. In recent years, MLB has implemented a “compensatory round” between the first and second rounds of the draft. The number of picks in this round varies from year to year, but it typically consists of approximately 15 picks.

2nd Round
Each team receives one pick in the second round for a total of 32 selections.

3rd Round
The third round consists of 31 picks, with each team making one selection.

4th Round
As in the third round, each of the 30 teams selects one player in the fourth round for a total of 30 picks.

5th Round
The fifth round also has 30 selections, with each team making one pick.

6th Round
Like the fifth round, each club receives one pick in the sixth for a total of 30 selections in this round.

7th Round Picks in this final round are determined by reverse order of finish from the previous season; consequently, teams that fared poorly receive higher picks while playoff teams receive lower picks. As such, there are 29 total selections made in the seventh round--the Houston Astros forfeited their seventh-round pick as punishment for their involvement in sign stealing scandal during their 2017 World Series run..

The Free Agent Draft

The free agent draft is the process whereby Major League Baseball teams select unsigned players. The draft order is determined by reverse order of the previous season’s standings, with ties going to the team with the worse record in the previous season. The first pick in the draft belongs to the team with the worst record, and the second pick goes to the team with the second-worst record, and so on.

In addition to awarding picks to teams based on their records, MLB also gives out compensation picks. These are extra picks that are given to teams that have lost key players to free agency. Compensation picks give teams an incentive to sign their best players to long-term contracts, as they can be assured of receiving high-quality replacements if they do lose those players.

The free agent draft is held every year in June. It consists of 40 rounds, with each team making one pick in each round. In total, there are 1,200 picks made in the draft.

Conclusion

Based on the data gathered from the sources used in this report, it appears that there are between 40 and 50 rounds in the baseball draft. However, it should be noted that the number of rounds has varied greatly over the years, with as few as 21 rounds being drafted in 1998 and as many as 50 rounds being drafted in 2009. It appears that the number of rounds has been on a general upward trend since 1998, but has remained fairly consistent over the past few years.