Shortly after Major League Baseball suspended spring training they announced that they were also suspending scouting across the world. That was on March 16th. Teams weren’t allowed to contact unsigned players, their families, trainers, weren’t allowed to hold or attend try outs, showcases, or workouts.
Since then MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association have come to agreements on both the draft and the international signing periods for the next two years. That gave the teams a bit of an understanding of perhaps where they can attempt to focus more remote scouting efforts. On Friday the reigns were loosened a bit on what teams and scouts were allowed to do with regards to scouting players. Here’s what teams can now do, according to the memo sent out to teams that was acquired by Kiley McDaniel of ESPN:
- Can contact players, advisers, coaches, and trainers via phone/text/email/video conferencing.
- Can ask players to take assessments.
- Can ask for both video and “data” (trackman/rapsado/other) – as long as that video/data was recorded prior to March 27th.
Teams are still not allowed to do any “live scouting”. That would include any sort of try out or live video scouting of a work out/cage/bullpen session.
All of these rules also apply for international scouting/signings. Technically, there was no rule against signing international players during the stoppage. But it was also impossible since teams and their employees were not allowed to have contact with players, their agents, their families, or anyone else associated with them. Now that they can contact each other again, signings can take place.
Thanks for keeping the updates coming, Doug!