Youth baseball, softball opportunities lined up from June to Nov.

By | May 20, 2022

As Major League Baseball closes out its first full Identification (ID) Tour around the country this weekend, the League is preparing for a spring, summer and fall full of development opportunities for young men and women in both baseball and softball. Following is the schedule of development and competitive opportunities – all of which are free of charge for all participants – for the remainder of 2022:

MLB DRAFT & MLB DRAFT COMBINE

For a second consecutive year, the MLB Draft will be featured during All-Star Week, taking place in Los Angeles from July 17th-19th, while the Draft Combine will be held at Petco Park in San Diego from June 14th-20th. MLB Network will once again provide extensive coverage of the MLB Draft and Draft Combine. Several alumni of the following programs, specifically Breakthrough Series, DREAM Series and Hank Aaron Invitational, will participate in the Draft Combine while three of the 2022 MLB Draft’s Top Prospects – Termarr Johnson, Elijah Green and Druw Jones – are all alumni of MLB Development programming.

IDENTIFICATION TOUR

The 12-city “Identification Tour” (ID Tour) was designed to identify underexposed baseball talent, particularly African-American and Latino athletes (in grades 8-9) across the country. The goal is to discover the best athletes, whether they are playing baseball or not, to invite them to future baseball development programs, such as the Breakthrough Series, DREAM Series or Hank Aaron Invitational, many of which will be held at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Florida. Earlier in March, MLB also hosted the MLB Grit: Girls ID Tour to accomplish the same for young female baseball athletes.

May 21 – Staten Island, NY (FerryHawk Park)
May 22 – Bronx, NY (Roberto Clemente MLB Youth Academy in Roberto Clemente State Park)

Fun Fact: The ID Tour launched in a two-year pilot phase in 2019 and 2021.

BOYS BASEBALL DEVELOPMENT

These free developmental and showcase experiences – co-hosted by USA Baseball – are designed to give opportunities for a diverse base of high school-age boys baseball athletes from around the country and Puerto Rico. These efforts are held to prepare these student-athletes for the next levels of the sport. The players learn from former Major Leaguers, including Hall of Famers and All-Stars, while focusing on development, on and off the field.

Fun Facts: (1) Appx. 95% of alumni of these programs – including the DREAM Series held annually in January – have played college baseball, played professionally or attended college; (2) there are more than 630 alumni of these programs playing at some level of collegiate baseball.

GIRLS SOFTBALL DEVELOPMENT

These free developmental and showcase experiences – co-hosted by USA Softball – are designed to give opportunities for a diverse base of high school-age female softball athletes from around the country and Puerto Rico. These efforts are held to prepare these student-athletes for the next levels of the sport. The players learn from Olympians, Women’s National Team Members (both present and former) and college coaches while focusing on development, on and off the field.

Fun Facts: MLB’s youth softball ambassadors are two of the most accomplished legends of their craft, including Jennie Finch and Lauren Chamberlain.

GIRLS BASEBALL DEVELOPMENT

These free developmental and showcase experiences – co-hosted by USA Baseball – are designed to give opportunities for a diverse base of high school-age female baseball players from around the country, Canada and Puerto Rico. These efforts are held to prepare these student-athletes for the next levels of the sport. The players learn from former Major Leaguers, World Cup athletes and Women’s National Team members (both present and former) while focusing on development, on and off the field.

Fun Facts: There are at least four of MLB’s program alumni who are currently playing baseball at the college level, including Alexia Jorge (St. Elizabeth University), Skylar Kaplan (St. Mary’s College of Maryland), Marika Lyszczyk (Rivier University) and Allison Schroder (Vancouver Island University).

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

MLB will continue its European Elite Development tour following two successful stints in France and the Czech Republic this spring. Later this summer, MLB will visit the United Kingdom and Italy to grow the sport among youth ages 15 and under. At these events, MLB elite coaching staff work with local baseball federations to take young prospects through practice and skills development drills to help them progress to the next level of the sport. The UK trip will be held July 5-8 while Italy will be July 18-21.

In October, MLB will host their annual “MLB College Showcase” where high school age prospects from around the world will fly to the greater Phoenix, AZ area to compete against local colleges, teams from the Arizona Fall League and teams from MLB Instructional Leagues. Players also will participate in pro-style showcase workouts for scouts and visit college campuses.

MLB currently runs an elite development program in three regions of Puerto Rico (Bayamon, Salinas, Mayaguez) that takes place from September-May, in conjunction with the school year. The program is provided at no cost to the players and consists of weekly practices focusing on skill development. Over 200 players (ages 14-18) take part in the program each year. Since its inception in 2013, 44 players have been drafted by MLB Clubs, 21 players have advanced to Division-I college programs and 238 players have earned JUCO opportunities.

EXPERIENTIAL BASEBALL & SOFTBALL OPPORTUNITIES

In addition to the above development opportunities, Major League Baseball will be offering special experiences to youth baseball & softball athletes in a number of competitive environments, including:

NOTABLE DEVELOPMENT EVENT ALUMNI (Majors, Minors, College & Beyond)

*Not fully inclusive of all program alumni*

More information can be found at www.mlb.com/youth-baseball-softball and @MLBDevelops (on Twitter and Instagram).

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