PHOENIX — James Clark is a young man with enticing options on his baseball horizon.The promising 18-year-old shortstop was taking infield practice Tuesday during the MLB draft combine at Chase Field, fluidly handling ground balls before firing to first base. It’s one of many reasons the California native has a chance to be selected in the first round of next month’s draft.But if he decides he’s not ready to start his professional baseball career, he’s committed to play college ball at Duke, which has a successful baseball program and an elite academic reputation.“It’s going to be a difficult decision,” Clark said. “But it’s a good one to have.”If MLB gets it’s way, it’s a decision that future baseball prospects won’t get to make.Owners recently proposed banning high school players from signing with major league teams, raising the age for international amateurs and slashing the money spent on signing bonuses in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.If the league gets its way, starting in 2028, a prospect for the amateur draft would have to be at least 20 years old by the Sept. 1 of his signing year and two years removed from the graduating year of his high school class — a restriction that also would eliminate players who completed their first year of junior college.There are dozens of current MLB stars who signed as teenagers, including Pete Crow-Armstrong, Mike Trout and Bobby Witt Jr. Even more recently, P …
