This year’s five-round draft left a lot of deserving players looking for deals on the open market. Here’s a roundup of some of the many recent undrafted players who have reached agreements with MLB organizations:
- White Sox (link)
- Ty Madrigal, LHP, St. Mary’s
- Rangers (link)
- Fernando Amaro, C, HS (PR)
- Nick Krauth, RHP, Connecticut
- DJ McCarty, RHP, HS (CA)
- Connor Sechler, RHP, Drury
- Brady Smith, C, Florida
- Colton Snyder, RHP, Concordia
- Josh Stephan, RHP, South Grand Prairie
- Mets (link)
- Austin Faith, RHP, Lamar
- Dylan Hall, RHP, Central Oklahoma
- Brandon McIlwain, OF, California
- Drake Nightengale, RHP, South Alabama
- Joe Suozzi, OF, Boston College
- Nationals (link)
- Jackson Coutts, 1B/OF, Rhode Island
- Gio Diaz, INF, Saint Mary’s
- Raymond Torres Jr., C, San Jacinto JC
- Astros (link)
- Peter Zimmermann, Missouri
- Cesar Gomez, Texas
- Jimmy Endersby, RHP, Concordia
- Justin Dirden, OF, Southeast Missouri State
- Kyle Gruller, RHP, Houston Baptist
- Jonathan Sprinkle, RHP, Central Missouri
- Zack Matthews, RHP, Oklahoma
- Cody Orr, OF, Tiffin
- Yankees (link)
- Carson Coleman, RHP, Kentucky
- Ocean Gabonia, RHP, Everett Community College
- Trevor Holloway, RHP, Central Florida
- Jarod Lessar, RHP, BYU
- Phillies (team announcement)
- Chase Antle, RHP, Coastal Carolina
- Jordan Fowler, LHP Central Missouri
- Jonathan Hughes, RHP, Georgia Tech
- Sam Jacobsak, RHP, Northeastern
- Jake McKenna, LHP, Ocean City HS (NJ)
- Noah Skirrow, RHP, Liberty University
- Billy Sullivan, RHP, Delaware
- JP Woodward, LHP, Lafayette College
- Orioles (link 1; link 2)
- Ryan Watson, RHP, Auburn
- JD Mundy, 1B, Radford
- Brandon Young, RHP, UL-Lafayette
- Thomas Girard, RHP, Duke
- Isaiah Kearns, RHP, Pitt-Johnstown
- Cubs (link)
- Matt Mervis, 1B/RHP, Duke
- Marlins (link)
- Antonio Velez, RHP, Florida State
- Cardinals (link)
- Jacob Buchberger, RHP, Davenport
- Matt Chamberlain, OF, New Haven HS (CT)
- Gianluca Dalatri, RHP, North Carolina
- Matt Koperniak, 3B/OF, Trinity
- Mac Lardner, LHP, Gonzaga
- Nick Raposo, C, Wheaton
- Omar Sanchez, LHP, B-You Prospects Academy (PR)
- Nick Trogrlic-Iverson, RHP, Gonzaga
- Indians (link)
- Joe Donovan, C, Michigan
- Twins (link)
- Lucas Sweany, LHP, University of the Pacific
- Allante Hall, C, Pensacola State JuCo
Any day now, Detroit…
Al Avila hibernates during the summer.
Be vewy, vewy, quiet. He’s counting sheep…
If you followed the Tigers, you would know that they keep their cards close to their vest. They will announce their signings when they are ready. The Tigers moves rarely come out before they decide to tell people themselves.
Tigers what are you doing….
Lol Tigers. Even the Orioles are scooping up leftover talent. Tigers are just sitting on the sidelines. Maybe they plan to destroy the international market!
The Tigers couldn’t even get Donovan from their own backyard.
He didn’t hit in college, not sure how he will in the pros.
Their catcher is coming from The Ohio State.
Lol Just noticed the first four comments are about the Tigers (including mine.)
Tigers tend not to make announcements until everything is set.
I always forget this, when I comment on the players vs owners posts about owners just taking advantage of corona to bypass cba and cut costs. How exactly did cutting draft to 5 rounds and limiting signing bonus of udf protect anybody from coronavirus? So owners have cut ump pay, got players to agree to prorated contracts, have no operational costs, just signed a billion dollar contract for rights to postseason coverage… yet, claim the players need to cut pay another 50% of prorated and only play 50 games? BS!
Not as simple as you laid out there chief….
Because of corona the owners will not receive gate revenue. Reduced revenue requires cutting cost.Period..
It’s not that simple. You can’t realistically expect to collect all additional profits when things are good but share the losses when things are bad. If reduced revenue requires cutting cost, then increased revenue SHOULD require spending more. If/when that ever happens, then it’ll be that simple. Period. Until then, this is just part of the cost of owning a business.
Plus, I’m sure they’ve already gotten plenty of government bailout money in their other business ventures to survive.
@ Priggs – The owners, on more than one occasion, have offered a revenue sharing model to the union but they turned it down because it would result in a salary cap. The union is dead set against a salary cap so I don’t foresee revenue sharing being part of the new 2022 CBA either given how strong the union feels about this. IMO, they are being stupid not to consider it as tv revenues seem to be going up each time they renew their national broadcasting contracts.
That contract for post season coverage is only if there is a post season to cover. It’s not guaranteed money in these non normal times.
That new playoff contract doesn’t kick in until 2022. Teams have received $0 in tv revenues this year as they cannot collect with no games played.
And one more thing. The players have not conceded on anything. The pro-rated salaries were dictated by their contracts. If there is a national emergency that require late games to be cancelled then they will not be paid for missed games. So the pro-rating of salaries was already predetermined via their contracts.
@ Ricky – The teams still have a ton of operating costs. Most of their front office and back office people are still working, not to mention all the payments they need to make on their stadium loans, real estate taxes, utilities, etc. Teams are dishing out $10’s of millions of dollars while getting zero revenue back.
I’ve called out the owners’ BS for months now, but…there is a very good reason for having a smaller draft that has nothing to do with them being greedy or opportunistically predatory…
It’s highly unlikely there will be minor league ball until…who knows when…
So, any player that can find a place to play (college, JuCo, etc.) they are better off there than rotting away at a team’s spring facility all year.
Matt Chamberlain (STL) is at the University of New Haven, not New Haven HS.
Also, it’s JOBA.
Coo, CWS got Nicks twin
I was thinking that a huge part of each draft comes down to “toss it against the wall and see if it sticks,” so it makes sense to me that you’d do your tossing at a reduced rate. However… does anybody know at which point in the draft the slotted values drop to $20,000 and below?
Thanks in advance!
Nevermind, found it (yes, Hub, google is your friend). From 2019, only the first ten rounds are slotted, and the last pick in last year’s tenth round had a slot of $142,200.
In addition, it says any bonus money above $125,000 given to an individual player selected in rounds 11-40 also counts against a team’s allotment…
Now I wonder at what point in the draft do the 20K bonuses become common? Considering last years slot values (first pick in round six had a slot of $310,600), 20K seems like quite the bargain if you can coerce the draftee to sign.
Crazy part is several drafted players are signing for 20k
Part of the deal, go undrafted and get $20k max. Or get contacted by the team who says they like you but you’re probably a 10th rounder in a normal draft. You get drafted, you get the same money and the team punts on the 5th round choice to pad that money on to an earlier pick and offer up above-slot value. Absolute win-win.
stoked to get McKenna. seems like he could be a good player.
Looks like those penalties against the Astros are paying off.in that they’re still able to sign a boatload of undrafted picks.
Link for Orioles’ selection Ryan Watson points to the wrong player..
Thank you for posting this. I was wondering if anyone would actually follow and post about UDFA signings. Guess I should have known . Please keep posting!
As expected, the vast majority of players who signed these $20K contracts are already age 22 or 23. Very few Top 500 prospects have signed and those who have fit into this age group.
It will be really interesting to see if any of these $20K kids make an impact in the majors. Looking at some of their stats, it appears to be a long shot. I’m guessing a few signed just to say they played pro ball for a little bit. Cool story and memories to have for these kids. The vast majority of available top talent decided to go back to school as anticipated. One shocker was the Red Sox signing an 18 year old catcher out of PR who has some skills. That could turn out to be a steal. I wish them all the best of luck!
RedSox have signed:
Jacinto Arredondo RHP Tampa
Jordan DiValerio RHP St. Joseph’s
Jake MacKenzie IF Fordham
Juan Montero C Puerto Rico Acad.
Graham Hoffman RHP South Florida
Jose Garcia C/1B Florida International Henry Nunez Rijo RHP Puerto Rico
Cole Milam RHP SIU-Edwardsville
Merfy Andrew RHP St. Thomas
Brian Van Belle RHP Miami
Maceo Campbell RHP Longwood
Cuba Bess 1B Grand Canyon
Good to see the Red Sox so involved… given their depleted farm system at least they look like they’re stocking up! Oh wait… Haha I’m mostly kidding I realize that not all deals are announced yet and so forth — and there was an article about them going after a specific kid from St Joseph’s earlier — but still would like to know they’re being active given the lack of high end prospects they currently have – certainly wouldn’t hurt to take a few fliers on some of these guys.
What is surprising is that 10 of the 12 are soph, jr, or jc. and could have stayed in college and HOPED for a bigger bonus next year. Only 2 of the 12 were seniors who much of the time sign for $20,000 or less in a normal draft (last year 7 of 8 RS college seniors received $5000 or $10,000 signing bonuses). I thought most of the undrafted players signing would be seniors. I guess most players decided it was better to be in a pro organization rather than take the risk they would not get the opportunity.
Peter Zimmerman and Justin dirden are gonna be studs. watch those two move up in the Washington ranks.
my apologies… Houston, not Washington
angels? angels? where are you?
Someone really named their child “Ocean”.
There was a whole wave of names like that. The trend seems to have crested.
Uh oh, is Chase Antle who went to Coastal Carolina in Conway, SC of any relation to Doc Antle (Tiger King) from Myrtle Beach just down the road???
I also like Sullivan IV. looked good in his first year at Delaware before injury concerns. Tarik Skubal also fell after missing a year and look where he is now.
For those who are curious, Seattle has signed 4 undrafted free agents:
Ty Duvall, Vanderbilt, C
Matt Scheffler, Auburn, C
Justin Lavey, SS/3B, Louiville
Brett Rodriguez, INF, Wofford
Sorry, but nobody cares about Seattle, or CHAZ for that matter…
THANK YOU!!.
p.s the Mariners are doing worse than the tigers
Twins also have signed John Stankiewicz out of Fordham.
Alright, Marlins sign another pitcher!
Even $20K is tough to pry out of Pirates owner Bob Nutting for free agents. This is the guy who bought a PA newspaper and then eliminated the entire news photography department. He said reporters can take pics with their cell phones. Bottom Line Bob is a pox on Pirates fans.