MLB's Amateur Recovery Period: Fair, or Foul?

RIO RANCHO — For any high school baseball players looking to make a name for themselves this fall, you may want to head back to the dugout.

As reported last month by baseball insider Jeff Passan, Major League Baseball is banning team officials from watching and scouting youth and amateur players during certain fall and winter months.

The new protocol is named the “Amateur Recovery Period Policy.” For high school juniors and seniors, this period will run from Oct. 15 to Jan. 15, while college players will be restricted to Nov. 15 to Jan. 15.

This news was met with mixed reactions and opinions nationwide when it broke, but what does this mean for high school baseball in New Mexico?

“High school kids, I feel like, in a sense, want to go throw when more teams can come watch,” Zach Bravo, Rio Rancho baseball alumnus and former Division I pitcher, said. “There’s a (NCAA) Division I dead period in the winter, so I’m kinda glad the MLB is hopping on the trend of following whatever the NCAA does.”

Bravo, who played four years for Rio Rancho High School, climbed the college baseball ladder. He started at Eastern Arizona Junior College before eventually working his way to West Virginia University, playing Division I baseball in the Big 12 Conference.

Now with his playing days behind him, Bravo is the head pitching coach at Angelina College in Texas.

“When I was in high school, we had no pitch count limits. In the state championship game, I threw 125 pitches, so that’s kind of the reason why there’s a pitch count limit in high school baseball in New Mexico now,” Bravo said. “I’m a big advocate for arm health and making sure we’re staying healthy, because you only get one (arm). It’s really hard to bounce back from surgery. So from an arm health standpoint, I love the decision.”

One of the biggest topics of debate in the baseball community in recent years has been youth teams playing year-round. In a mad dash to try and make it to the heights of college baseball and even the majors, amateurs can find themselves in a vicious cycle of being on the diamond around the clock.

This new dead period from the MLB will likely bring that cycle to a halt, now affecting national amateur baseball organizations such as Prep Baseball Report and Perfect Game. Just last year, Prep Baseball Report planned the “New Mexico State Games” at Rio Rancho High School in November, a fall event that is now not feasible in 2025.

“I’m not a huge advocate for playing year-round. I think that’s where things in travel ball get really twisted, that all these kids think, “If I play, play, play, I’m gonna get better.” But there’s a whole other aspect to it,” Bravo said. “There’s a weight room aspect, there’s a nutrition aspect, there’s a sleep aspect, and finding the right people to train with. Baseball-wise, getting coaches, pitching coaches. That’s where I think travel ball can be detrimental to kids nowadays. That’s why kids are blowing out; that’s why kids are getting hurt.”

The Albuquerque/Rio Rancho area is home to a plethora of travel ball teams and organizations, with batting cages and facilities offering baseball from the dog days of summer to the snowy winter months.

“If you’re getting asked to play in Japan in December for Team USA, sure, go. But I don’t want you to go play with your Joe Schmo travel team at some random tournament in North Dallas, where you’re going to win just a new backpack, and there’s going to be no college coaches there. That makes no sense,” Bravo said. “You could be spending those thousands of dollars on weight training, protein, hitting lessons, teaching programs, and getting in with the right people, right?”

This new rule puts New Mexico baseball in a tough spot, as the community already finds itself in a bit of a limbo. With local youth athletes trying to get an edge up on the prospect hotbeds around the country, Bravo states that it still all starts with the high school programs.

“I don’t look at travel ball numbers. I look at what you did in high school,” Bravo said. “You can do all the right things and feel like you’re in a really good spot, but if your high school coach doesn’t have good things to say about you, it’s gonna be really hard for me to overlook that.”

But in the current college landscape that is headlined by the transfer portal, a foot in the door may be all a local athlete needs to get themselves on the right track to the top.

“Every New Mexico kid’s goal should be to go explore different things,” Bravo said. “I noticed that once you leave New Mexico, it’s very easy to climb the ladder if you’re trying to get up that ladder. But if their only option is to stay and play somewhere around the state, then they’ve got to do it. But that’s why there’s a transfer portal. You can always go and try to find something better.”

MLB’s Amateur Recovery Period began Oct. 15, with the first practice date for the New Mexico high school baseball season set for Feb. 2, 2026.