Colorado Rockies: Next steps after the 2020 MLB Draft

For the Colorado Rockies and the rest of Major League Baseball, the 2020 MLB Draft was a quick exercise, with just five rounds to officially select players. Now what happens with those players who weren’t selected?

With the move this season to slice the MLB Draft from 40 rounds down to five, there will be plenty of players who were not selected this year. With many college players now looking to find a home and hopefully extend their playing career, the Colorado Rockies and other Major League teams can sign players for a maximum of $20,000 per player.

While the draft ended on Thursday night, there is now a “dead period,” as Rockies vice president of scouting Bill Schmidt called it during a Zoom conference with media after the draft’s conclusion. Teams are not allowed to contact any players until Sunday morning at 9 a.m. ET. During the “dead period,” players can opt out of being contacted as well.

“We’ll go through this dead period and we’ll find out who has interest,” Schmidt said. “Based on who’s available, we’ll make some decisions as to who to approach to try to become Rockies.”

Schmidt went on to say that there is no set number of players that the Rockies will or won’t sign when Sunday’s activity begins.

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“We’re always looking for good players so we’ll make evaluations based on who’s available to us and we’ll go from there,” Schmidt said.

Of course, the Rockies may be going to head to head with another MLB team to try to sign a player who wasn’t drafted. Schmidt said that’s where relationships that have been built for months or even years between players and Colorado scouts will hopefully pay dividends.

“Ultimately, as they (scouts) get to know him (a player), they talked about the Rockies organization and what we’re about,” Schmidt said. “They’ve built a relationship with the kid and I think a lot of decisions will be about the relationships.”

In a time when the near-term future of all levels of baseball is up in the air, Schmidt and Colorado general manager Jeff Bridich reiterated on Thursday night what we reported after Wednesday’s first day of the draft. There is no set plan for what will happen in terms of a minor league season this year and if and where any players signed would head to begin their Rockies career. It’s all part of what has been a year unlike any others before it.

While the official MLB Draft concluded on Thursday night, there will likely be a flurry of activity with the Rockies on Sunday and beyond as Colorado continues to build up its next generation of talent.

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In case you missed Colorado’s six selections in the 2020 MLB Draft, here they are…

Round 1 (No. 9 pick overall) — OF Zac Veen, Spruce Creek HS (Florida)

CBA (No. 35) — C Drew Romo, The Woodlands HS (Texas)

Round 2 (No. 46) — RHP Chris McMahon, University of Miami

Round 3 (No. 81) — LHP Sam Weatherly, Clemson University

Round 4 (No. 110) — RHP Case Williams, Douglas County HS (Colo.)

Round 5 (No. 140) — SS Jack Blomgren, University of Michigan

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