MLB mandates ‘recovery period’ for scouting amateur players during offseason

In a memo sent to all 30 teams on Thursday, Major League Baseball listed newly prohibited activities for draft-eligible players based in the United States during MLB’s offseason, citing a need for “appropriate downtime” in response to a rise in injuries sustained by amateur pitchers. ESPN was the first to report on the memo.

In-person and remote evaluations by MLB team personnel of high school players, along with coaching and the gathering of data and video, are no longer permitted from Oct. 15 to Jan. 15. The same restrictions apply to MLB personnel scouting college players from Nov. 15 to Jan. 15. The changes are effective this coming offseason.

After creating an “MLB Report on Pitcher Injuries” in December 2024, the league “identified the year-round culture of amateur baseball — and the pressure to forego rest and recovery in order to constantly showcase for scouts and colleges — as contributing to the increase in amateur pitcher injuries.”

The league surveyed scouting directors, medical experts, coaches and others for the report, and found “broad support for restrictions on Club scouting activity during the offseason.” For this year only, four college exhibition games are exempt from the new restrictions: Stanford-Cal Poly, Southern-SE Louisiana, Golden West JC-Loyola Marymount and USC-UC San Diego.

Teams are still allowed to interact with players and their families in a non-baseball capacity, including visits to a player’s home. Team employees can also attend games involving relatives as long as they’re doing so in a “non-professional capacity.” Club employees can still scout and evaluate players who are “passed over,” meaning players who have exhausted their collegiate eligibility, those in professional independent leagues or those who were unenrolled for the entire school year.

(Photo: Zac Bellman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA Today Network)