According to Kendall Rogers from D1 Baseball, the MLB Amateur draft will finally make the move from New Jersey to Omaha in 2020. The event will take place Wednesday through Friday before the College World Series opening ceremonies later that Friday evening.
This has been rumored for a while, more pipe dream than anything else, but now its finally come to fruition. Having the draft in Omaha, and no longer having it take place during the Super Regionals – where the announcement of the drafting of a player while he’s in the middle of a playoff push resembled more of a nonsensical distraction than a life-changing event – is a stroke of brilliance on behalf of the MLB.
Creighton Coach Ed Servais said of the distraction offered by the draft happening in the middle of the Super Regionals, “It takes a tremendous player to stay focused and not get distracted by the draft and who’s interested in them and what round they’re going to go in, and how much money they’re going to make – oh and by the way I’ve got a game tomorrow. It’s hard to juggle all that.”
It isn’t determined where the draft will be held quite yet. There will be multiple options – ranging from the CHI Health Center, to the Holland, and potentially the newly announced venue between 11th & 12th between Dodge & Capitol.
Before the event was announced, I sat down with Coach Servais and pitched the hypothetical situation to him. He was prescient in his response:
“I think the draft is trending towards the NFL model, where they’re going to have a place where they do the draft… I think it’s going to be between the regionals and the World Series, I believe someday it’ll be in Omaha and I think it’ll be another big opportunity for the city of Omaha to host an event. The timing’s never going to be ideal from a college coach’s perspective, but I really feel for the players sometimes with all the pressure that they feel from the draft and trying to be productive players for their team.”
Whether this offers a recruiting edge to Creighton, it’s really pretty difficult to say that it doesn’t. What more could an athlete want than to have their professional future announced a few blocks away from their dorm room? Seems like a pretty easy sell, all in all.
Omaha has been world-class in holding events like these, catered to a pretty niche market on the surface but with an potentially gigantic appeal as the event ages – much like the College World Series itself. Omahans love this kind of stuff and we’ll no doubt embrace it and love it more than New Jersey ever could.
