Will the MLB have an International Draft?

In July of 2024, Ismael Ureña Pérez returned home from a local baseball academy in the Dominican Republic.[1] The next morning, Ismael’s urine was red and his skin was jaundiced.[2] He was rushed to the hospital and placed in intensive care for three days.[3] Ismael was then transferred to a medically induced coma.[4] Unfortunately, Ismael passed away within forty-eight hours.[5]

Ismael was repeatedly injected with performance-enhancing drugs at the academy he attended.[6] His family believes that his organs failed.[7] Ismael’s death sparked outrage in the Dominican Republic and around the nation.[8]

The MLB’s next collective bargaining agreement is expected to occur this month.[9] Conversations about reforming an international market that includes age fraud, steroid use, and illegal handshake agreements, is currently a priority for the MLB.[10] MLB officials believe an international draft would help solve these issues.[11] They say this “would stop the free-for-all in which people affiliated with teams approach handlers and street agents and offer them money to steer players to their clubs.”[12] However, other members of the MLB Players Association believe the best solution is stricter enforcement and more punishment by the league.[13] They think the league has failed in punishing wrongdoers.[14]

Junior Noboa, the executive director of the Dominican Republic’s baseball commissioner’s office, stated, “’I spent almost 30 years signing players. Never did I think you’d start seeing 12-, 13-year-old kids signing.’”[15] The MLB’s front office executive says this process begins when an individual finds a prospective player usually around the age of ten, and “shops him to different academies.”[16] Because this process is quick, steroids or falsified birth certificates are often used.[17]

This story is incredibly heartbreaking. Ismael was only fourteen-years-old when he passed away.[18] Performance-enhancing drugs are a common issue in professional sports, and require stricter enforcement to stop the use of them. Ismael was a teenager when he was injected with them; and thus, his family deserves justice. The MLB is currently focusing on this serious issue, so hopefully a change is coming.

[1] Alden Gonzalez, Amid scandal, is MLB headed for an international draft? ESPN (Apr. 7, 2026) https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/48370191/mlb-2026-international-draft-cba-talks-labor-dominican-republic-fraud-abuse-steroids-broken-deals.

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] Id.

[15] Id.

[16] Id.

[17] Id.

[18] Id.

Featured Image: Logan Stanley, Baseball has huge on- and off-the-field impact in the Dominican Republic, Cronkite News (Sept. 5, 2023) https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2023/09/05/baseball-has-huge-on-and-off-the-field-impact-in-the-dominican-republic/.