Trading draft picks should be allowed in MLB

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MLB’s draft doesn’t get the attention of its NFL or NBA counterparts, and there are a few reasons for that that the league can do nothing about. Drafted players, with rare exceptions, aren’t helping out in a few months or a year or usually even two years like they for the world’s top basketball and football leagues. The fact that the best available talent is taken instead of immediate needs being picked takes something from it, too, as it’s occasionally harder to debate just who a team should zero in on in anyway other than who the outright best talent is.

However, MLB could take a cue from other leagues and allow draft picks to be traded, which would add layers to how a team is able to rebuild, reload, or better contend in the moment in time they’re in. Look at how gripped NBA fans were this past weekend, when the Celtics, who not only appeared in the Eastern Conference finals but also had the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft, decided to trade down to acquire an additional pick for the future — and they did it for a number of reasons.

The guy they want to draft (whoever that might be) should still be there at No. 3, where they traded down to. Moving off the top spot helped their payroll out, helped shed light on directions they hope to take with players they already have, and made it clear that there are likely more trades coming. They got in this situation to begin with due to trading established stars (Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett) to the Nets in exchange for draft picks well down the road, one of which netted them the top spot in this season’s draft.

Now, fans around the NBA are invested in what Boston does next, if trading the pick that could net a potential superstar to a rival will backfire, or if it’ll turn out that Celtics’ general manager Danny Ainge has made a prescient move. Imagine if MLB could add these levels of intrigue to its own draft and transactions each season? The Twins passed on consensus No. 1 Hunter Greene just last week: How could they have helped their own rebuild and current path to contention out if they had been able to deal out of that spot instead of just passing on him?