By Coach Ron Wolforth –
Let me say something that’s going to ruffle some feathers, and I’m fine with that, because it needs to be said.
True skill development does not happen in Major League Baseball. It does not happen at the Top 25 Division I powerhouses. Not anymore. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either trying to sell you something or hasn’t looked at the numbers.
Here’s the reality: the average MLB team has just 16 homegrown players on its 40-man roster. Sixty percent of every big-league roster was acquired from somewhere else. They were either traded for, signed in free agency, or plucked off waivers. The most homegrown team in baseball, the Cleveland Guardians, still has 17 of 40 players (43%) “developed” by another organization. The Phillies, Padres, and Rays? Over 75% acquired.
Let that sink in for a moment. Imagine 75% of your current 40-man roster didn’t start with you. You bought, borrowed, or bartered for them.
And here’s the kicker that fans never hear: 85% of all MLB draft picks never play a single big-league game. Even among first-round picks… the supposed cream of the crop, handed every developmental resource on Earth… nearly one in four never sniff the majors. If MLB organizations were truly elite at developing talent, those numbers would be impossible.
College is worse. Over 6,249 Division I baseball players entered the transfer portal in 2025 alone. Texas Tech brought in 21 high-rated transfers in a single offseason. Georgia has led the nation in transfer additions three years running. NIL money now rivals seventh-round MLB signing bonuses. The top programs aren’t developing players anymore; they’re shopping for them. And coaches openly admit they prefer “proven college transfers” over high school recruits.
And this is not going to change. The financial pressure, the win-now culture, the sheer scale of money sloshing around the sport… it all points in the same direction: acquire, don’t develop.
Why? Three primary reasons.
First, the incentive structure. MLB teams and Top 25 DI programs are evaluated on wins this year, not on long-term development. The MLB GM who trades a prospect for a rental to help them in a playoff push gets to keep his job. The DI head coach who flips a 35-man roster every two years through the portal gets to Omaha. Neither is incentivized to invest in patient, individualized development… both are incentivized to acquire finished or near-finished products.
The second is selection bias. The kid who arrives at LSU as a transfer with a 95 mph fastball didn’t develop that fastball at LSU; he developed it somewhere else, and then LSU bought him. The same is true at the MLB level: many “homegrown” stars on most rosters developed their pitch designs, velocity gains, and movement profiles in the minors or before the draft—often with their own fathers, private coaches, and/or facilities. The big-league team gets the credit for “developing” them, but the actual skill-acquisition work happened earlier and elsewhere.
The third is the survivorship illusion. When a fan sees Spencer Strider on the Braves and thinks, “Wow, what a development system,” they’re seeing the 1 in 100, not the 99 first-rounders who washed out despite having access to the same coaches, facilities, and resources. Ninety-seven percent of all draft picks produced less than 5 WAR during their team-controlled seasons. If MLB organizations were truly elite developers, that number would clearly not be as dismal as 97%.
Now hear me clearly: the young men playing in the MLB, and at LSU, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt, are phenomenal athletes. They are a joy to watch. But please, please do not believe for one second that those organizations developed them. No matter what is implied on MLB Network or ESPN tonight, they did not. That work happened years earlier, at smaller schools, in high schools, with private coaches, fathers, brothers, or neighbors, or in facilities like ours, where someone took the time to truly know the kid and build him over time.
So here’s a humble suggestion for MLB: stop calling these folks “Directors of Player Development.” That title is a nearly laughable fiction at this point. The more honest title is “Head of MUTT” — Management and Utilization of Talent and TrackMan data.
That, friends, is what’s actually happening.
Stay curious, and keep fighting the good fight.
-Coach Ron
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Important TBR Updates
- Make your plans now to join us this summer for an Elite Pitchers Bootcamp!
May 23-25 (Sat-Mon) – SOLD OUT – call to be placed on the wait list.
June 19-21 (Fri-Sun) – Spots LIMITED
July 3-5 (Fri-Sun)
July 31-August 2 (Fri-Sun)
September 5-7 (Sat-Mon)
To register or learn more CLICK HERE
- Have you been considering attending one of our 3-Day Elite Pitchers Bootcamp but are still on the fence? To help, we have a detailed information package entitled “What Makes This Boot Camp Different”. If you’d like to receive this package and start making plans for the summer, email Jill@TexasBaseballRanch.com and request a copy.
- Interested in our “Summer Intensive Development Program”? Join us for 2-11 weeks this summer. For more information on this one of a kind Summer Training experience and for a registration form visit https://www.texasbaseballranch.com/events/tbr-summer-program/.
- Would you like to participate in the Ranch Summer Program but can’t find 2+ weeks in your schedule? We have an option for you! Attend one of our 3-Day EPBC’s and add the summer program week after. It’s seven days of training and is a great option for those players with an extremely busy summer schedule. Give us a call and we can provide you with more details – (936) 588-6762.
- Coach Wolforth is hosting a special 90 minute webinar – “The Velocity Code: 3 Secrets to Improving Velocity and Staying Healthy” on Thursdays at 7pm CST. If you’d like to attend the next webinar, CLICK HERE to register.
