A Crazy Year for Brady Aiken

By Peyton Wesner

A deal has finally been agreed upon, but it is one year later than expected and the dollar figure is significantly less.

When drafted with the first overall pick on June 5 in the 2014 MLB Draft, Brady Aiken was being compared to the great Clayton Kershaw while the thought of him ending his career as a hall of famer was realistic. One year and three days later, Aiken was drafted again, but with the seventeenth overall selection by the Cleveland Indians. How is this so?

On June 7, 2014, the left hander and the Astros agreed in principle to a deal with a $6.5 million dollar signing bonus ($1.5 million dollars less than MLB's assigned slot amount) that would go on the books after a healthy physical. What would be discovered at his physical would change everything for Houston and result in an event that has not occurred since 1983. 

At the team physical, Aiken's elbow received an MRI, which revealed an abnormality. The abnormality with the prospect's arm was reported to be a "small" ulnar collateral ligament and the significance with a pitcher's UCL is that it is the ligament needing repair in Tommy John surgery. 

With the development, the Astros withdrew their original offer and reduced the signing bonus to $3.1 million dollars, forty percent of the assigned slot value in comparision to the 2015 number one overall pick Dansby Swanson of Vanderbilt. Aiken turned down the proposal in addition to three more, one with a signing bonus of $5 million dollars, and ultimately went unsigned past the deadline for 2014 draftees.

This spring, in order to maintain his draft value, the pitcher from California was a part of IMG Academy's postgraduate program in Bradenton, Florida. Sadly, Aiken threw out his arm in his first start and required Tommy John surgery just as the Astros expected.

With their compensation pick (from failing to sign Brady Aiken) in the 2015 MLB Draft, the Astros selected Alex Bregman, a shortstop from LSU. Fifteen picks later, Aiken was selected by the Cleveland Indians and yesterday he signed a contract with the team. Currently, the specific details of the agreement are unknown, but the slot value for the seventeenth overall pick is $2,393,600 million dollars, which is $2,606,400 million dollars less than Aiken could have accepted with the Astros after his MRI.

With Aiken not expected to be able to suit up until next year, the only thing baseball fans can do now is wait to "read" the end of the Brady Aiken's story and find out if the Astros made the right decision "swapping" him for Alex Bregman.