Recent Hall of Fame electee and Dominican Republic slugger David Ortiz has come out against the hasty implementation of an international draft in Major League Baseball.
"The system in the Dominican is not ready to have a draft next year," the Boston Red Sox legend told ESPN's Jeff Passan on Wednesday. "The Dominican is not the U.S. You can't snap a finger and everything lines up to operate the right way. ... We need to do this slowly."
"Taking time - that makes more sense. ... Let's keep up this pace to do it three, four years from now," he added. "We sit down with the big-time players. We listen to what they have to say. If we're going to do it, let's do it right. Rushing it like this is not right."
An international draft seems to be one of the final bargaining chips for the owners holding up a new agreement between the league and union. Dominican shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. also came out against its introduction Wednesday, stating that it'd kill baseball in his home country.
Owners reportedly want players to concede to an international draft in collective bargaining in return for the abolition of the qualifying offer system, which hurts the market of free agents.
"Baseball is one of the secret weapons of the Dominican economy," Ortiz continued. "If you talk about a draft here in the states, you have choices. You can do football, basketball. You don't have choices (in the Dominican). ... (Baseball is) it. You have to be careful."
