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On Monday the Yankees are expected to call up uber-prospect Joba Chamberlain (9-2, 2.50 ERA, 130 K in 86.1 IP) and stick him in their struggling bullpen. If you’re wondering how the Yankees came about acquiring this 21 year-old flamethrower, the answer is that in an effort to help small market teams, Major League Baseball gave him to them.

Ok, so that’s not exactly the case, but the Yankees did get him with a compensation first round pick in the 2006 draft (their reward for signing Tom Gordon and then letting him leave as a free agent), and compensation picks were originally created to help small market teams. The idea behind the system was to “compensate” small market teams who lost key free agents by giving them a first round pick in the next year’s draft. Unfortunately, Major League Baseball has turned a blind eye as this archaic and outdated system has begun to predominantly benefit the richest teams.

The reason this has happened is that over the last decade small market teams have begun to wise up to the fact that they cannot afford to let their star players leave as free agents. Nowadays, before they hit the open market teams either trade them (Josh Beckett, Aramis Ramirez, Tim Hudson etc.) or sign them to long term contracts (Jason Bay, Travis Hafner, Ben Sheets etc.) The result is that most compensation picks go to big market teams who are being compensated for losing free agents they signed only a few years before.

Just take a look at the nine teams who have had the most first round compensation picks over the last six years. (# of picks in parentheses)

Boston (8)

San Diego (7)

Atlanta(6)

Oakland (6)

San Francisco (5)

L.A. Dodgers (4)

St. Louis (4)

Toronto (4)

Arizona (4)

That’s not exactly a list of teams who need baseball’s help in order to compete. On the other hand, the only teams that didn’t have any compensation picks over that span are Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, and Milwaukee, while Kansas city had just one selection. Those are the teams that need some help.

It’s clear that this policy no longer benefits the teams it was designed to benefit. If in the off-season the Red Sox sign Jeff Kent away from the Dodgers and the Dodgers sign Curt Schilling away from the Red Sox, then guess what? Each team has earned itself an extra first round pick for throwing around $80 million and further distancing themselves from small market teams. And it’s not even like they earned the picks by shrewdly drafting and developing those players—the teams only had them because they signed them to rich free agent contracts just a few years ago. I don’t really see how this helps the Pirates compete.

The time has come for baseball to put the kibosh on its faulty system of compensation draft picks. Hopefully it won’t take Joba Chamberlain helping the Yankees overtake Cleveland for the Wild Card for Major League Baseball to figure it out.

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