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Could be eventually, but there are significant legal hurdles when you try to put in place rules governing residents of other countries still living and working in their homelands. If an international draft was easy to institute, it would have been done long ago.
Seven years ago, Mets GM Sandy Alderson was charged with leading a group to figure it out. They got nowhere.
https://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2011/12/mets_gm_sandy_alderson_appoint.html
Not everyone agrees there should be an international draft. Here is a differing view from Fangraphs, looking at many of the challenges.
https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/mlb-wants-an-international-draft-heres-why-it-shouldnt-happen/
If only things were so simple. I imagine MLB is familiar with the NBA. A quick look at their history indicates they have been drafting international players for 40 years. Chances are they got their procedures in place before the really big money started getting in the way.
On the other hand, MLB has an ingrained and flawed process that has evolved over a long time and those in control now (located in the countries) do not appear anxious to give it up. Their fear is that bonuses and salaries will go down with a draft and the number of players signed will be reduced, which they may be right about. The Fangraphs article goes into some of the objections, including the issues that have been encountered in Puerto Rico, which is included in the draft today. Not only does PR not want an international draft, they want out of the US one.
With the new CBA, MLB capping total international team bonus totals appears to be a push toward creating a more level playing field. That could eventually help their case if they come back around to trying to implement a draft.
If MLB could go back decades in time, I bet they would have followed the NBA path.
Just pointing out that the NBA shows that the legal hurdles are not that significant. Socially, culturally, and from a PR standpoint they might be
My guess is that the powerful figures in some of the countries also have political clout that could be used to hamper the establishment of a new MLB draft. FWIW, those particular countries are not prime sources for NBA players.
More info. Mostly Dodgers, it appears, but maybe not.
https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/10/02/fbi-investigation-mlb-atlanta-braves-los-angeles-dodgers
Those emails look like filler by someone getting paid by the column inch. They show nothing. Nothing criminal about taking someone to a visa interview. If it was employees of mlb teams doing it it may be against some mlb rules (I have no idea) but certainly isn’t criminal.
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