Bo Davidson Continues June Bloom
SF Giants Minor Lines, July 18, 2026
Photo Credit: Kevin Cunningham | Giant Futures
I suspect people will have questions about this in upcoming mailbags, but I’m sure you all saw the news yesterday (which has been long rumored around the industry) that MLB’s proposal for overhauling amateur player acquisition aims to eliminate high school players from the draft and make international signings start at 18. I’m not going to be spending too much time (or, I hope, emotional energy) talking about the CBA negotiations over the next however many months, but let’s just clarify these proposals: the point is to limit spending. The younger players make their MLB debuts, the more money they end up making. High school draftees tend to be the players who make free agency the quickest and get the biggest paydays once they reach there — not always (Aaron Judge represent those college guys!), but typically this is the case. The proposal also cuts a little more than 40% of total draft pools. It proposes a reduction of eight rounds as well — but that 40% is not going to be coming from signing bonuses for rounds 13-20.
Owners should be negotiating from a perspective of maximizing their own objectives, as should players. But always remember to follow the money, no matter what the talking points are that try to get you to focus on other things with greater emotional resonance (like competitive balance). Indeed, these proposals would eliminate the possibility of having thrilling young stars (Bryce Harper, Ronald Acuña, Jr., Juan Soto, Konnor Griffin, and our own Bryce Eldridge) arrive on the scene at ages that have, historically, announced the potential for a Hall of Fame track, taking away a huge source of on-field entertainment for fans. It’s all about the money, naturally.
But for much more in depth discussion of these proposals, JJ Cooper is there for you, breaking down what all this means (Baseball America also published a number of stories on this topic today, including a piece focusing on scouting views of the proposal):
On a related topic, go listen to Jeff Passan’s interview with Tom Glavine regarding the 1994 CBA negotiations. This is really good, both from a perspective of understanding the underlying process and getting to know a little more about baseball history!
Anyway, off to the Lines, where we’ll find a couple of very young players enjoying special moments, a slightly older player continuing to roll, and, ugh, a lot of rough pitching lines. We also will come across the best possible first impression this morning!
HITTER of the NIGHT: Bo Davidson (Rich), 3 for 5, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, 1 SB
PITCHER of the NIGHT: Leandro Rodriguez (ACLG), 3.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 K
We’ll start out, however, with an absolute gut punch of a finish at the top of the organizational ladder.
