It starts quietly—on long, dusty bus rides between small towns, with MLB athletes chasing a dream that most will never grasp. Not because they lack talent but because the system they’re in was never designed to favor them. While leagues like the NBA and NFL fast-track their talents, another major sport is still crawling along.
And that’s where the frustration begins. One respected voice, a veteran of the sport, currently opened up about this exact gap. His words didn’t just echo through baseball. They confronted its very structure. Now, the spotlight is back on MLB’s most agonizing truth.
The occasion came at the period of an interview that did not pull punches. Bryce Harper, now a vocal leader of baseball, finally said what many have murmured behind closed doors: “Some get stuck for 10 years“. His annoyance wasn’t about one player. It was about a pattern. In the NFL and NBA, top players climb quickly, sometimes becoming famous names before they hit 21. But in MLB? That ascent is a crawl. Even elite draft picks can spend years in the minors. It’s not rare; it’s the norm.
So, what exactly is the issue? Harper drew a sharp dissimilarity between the MLB and other leagues, pointing to the pipeline itself. “In the NFL, you get drafted and you are in. You go straight to a team and get paid. The same with the NBA“, he said. And he’s not wrong. In 2024, 257 players were drafted into the NFL; almost all had a chance to play immediately. Meanwhile, MLB’s draft had 615 picks, but only a small fraction will debut in the next three years. The rest? They’ll ride buses, sleep in motels, and may never make it to the majors, outside of Double-A.
It is not just a time delay—it is a career risk. Take the case of recent top-100 prospect Jhailyn Ortiz. Signed with hype in 2015, the star spent nine years in the minors before being announced in 2024 without a single MLB appearance. That is not a one-off. Talents in baseball like Brent Rooker took nearly 5 seasons to become everyday big leaguers. And then, they had to struggle with roster crunches, irregular playing time, and mental tolls few fans ever see.
Now there is the kicker—this is not just a “pay your dues” situation. It is structural. Minor leaguers earn just $26,200–$45,800 a year and, until recently, were not guaranteed housing. Compare that with NBA rookies who earn more than $1M right out of the gate or NFL draft picks whose rookie minimum is $750,000. Harper’s not arguing for partiality—he is demanding fairness. Because when key athletes stagnate in an outdated system, it does not just hurt them—it enfeebles the whole league.
The quiet exodus
While Bryce Harper highlighted those who get “stuck for 10 years,” there’s another group MLB rarely talks about—the ones who never stick around at all. MLB’s outdated system isn’t just slow; it’s discouraging. Across high school and college levels, two-sport athletes are walking away from baseball altogether. Why spend years grinding through minor league uncertainty when you can earn six figures in the NFL or NBA development systems in just one year? Harper knows it, and that’s why he said, “We are losing athletes. We are losing guys to other sports.”
The odds are brutally clear. Only 5.1 percent of NCAA baseball players eligible for the 2023 draft were selected, compared to 1.5 percent in football and just 1.1 percent in men’s basketball. But here’s the catch: despite the lower draft rates, basketball and football provide faster and wider paths to the pros. Nearly 21 percent of men’s basketball players went on to play professionally in 2023—NBA, G League, or overseas. Football? It’s 16 percent. Baseball? Still stuck at that 5.1 percent, with years of minor league grinding before a likely MLB debut, at an average age of 24.4. That’s nearly four years older than the NFL’s 21.8 and the NBA’s 20.2. For dual-sport athletes, baseball is the longest, most uncertain climb. Kyler Murray saw that and raced to the NFL.
He is not alone. Former NFL MVP Bo Jackson famously chose football over a baseball-risky path, despite being drafted by the Yankees. Russell Wilson also played pro baseball after being drafted by the Rockies but finally went with football. Even recent two-sport stars like Marquise Goodwin and Jameis Winston considered baseball before committing to the NFL.
It doesn’t stop at sportspeople. Agents, too, are guiding against the long-haul grind of minor league ball. With no collective reckoning for minor leaguers until recently and with the average minor league career lasting just 2.5 years, baseball becomes a gamble with little return. The question is not whether MLB will yield—it is whether it can afford not to. Because the players who left early aren’t the ones who failed—they are the ones who never got the chance to fail. And for a league trying to grow its international appeal, that’s a silent crisis hiding in plain sight.
Bryce Harper’s words were not just a warning—they were a wake-up call. MLB can not keep pretending its outdated systems are working when players are openly annoyed. Whether it is refinishing minor league development and fixing the path to the bigs, change is overdue. Want to keep the game alive? Start by listening to the ones living it. What is your take on it?
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