Every July, Major League Baseball holds the Rule 4 Draft, otherwise known as the MLB Draft. The MLB Draft gives all 30 teams a chance to select from a pool of eligible amateur talent, a group that’s the future of the league. However, not all amateur high school and college players are eligible. For example, some college sophomores, known as draft-eligible sophomores, can be selected in the MLB Draft — while others can’t. Here’s a primer on what a draft-eligible sophomore is in the MLB Draft.

Definition of draft-eligible sophomore

Simply put, a draft-eligible sophomore in the MLB Draft is a college sophomore who’s eligible to be drafted by a Major League Baseball team.

Traditionally, the only college players eligible for the MLB Draft in a given year are juniors or redshirt college players who are 21 or older. However, if a sophomore is old enough to be drafted, that individual can be selected as a draft-eligible sophomore.

Examples of draft-eligible sophomores from past years include Kevin Gausman (2012), Andrew Benintendi (2015), and Jack Leiter (2021).

Related: How the MLB Rule 5 Draft Works

Who is eligible?

In March 2022, MLB changed the rules for 2023 and future years for which college players would be eligible to be selected.

A universal cutoff date of August 1 was implemented for the MLB Draft in the weeks before the start of 2022. Thus, players 21 years old by August 1 of the draft year would be eligible for the Draft.

This note is rather interesting for the 2024 MLB Draft, as Stanford star Malcolm Moore — who was born on July 31, 2003 — is eligible. Had Moore been born a couple of days later, he would have to wait until 2025.

But for the 2022 MLB Draft, the cutoff date was September 1.

Also, keep in mind that sophomores from community and junior colleges are not part of this group. Those players can be selected at any point, as per the official rules of the MLB Draft.