Post Draft Followup - Undrafted Free Agents We Signed

 Welcome to Sunday afternoon. 

In past years, from a distance, it appeared to me that there were very few guys signed who weren't drafted in the amateur draft.   I mean, when there are 40 rounds I guess you would get everybody, right?  

This year there were only 20 rounds so a lot college organizational filler guys and some high school 'flyer' picks who would normally fill out the last 20 rounds of the draft ended up not being drafted this year.   Add that to the backlog from last year when there were only 5 rounds to the draft and there should have still been guys to sign, right?

So when I went looking for the guys who the Indians signed as undrafted free agents here is what I found:

1. Seth Waddell, C, Eastern Carolina: OPS .899, 14 HR, college junior 4th year junior, has his degree)

2. Zac Fascia, C, Purdue, OPS .727, 3 HR, 5th year senior

So there you have it.   We signed the college catcher for our #1 pick, Gavin Williams, likely to ease our top pick into pro ball and another college catcher.  

Makes sense, right?  We drafted 20 pitchers and they need someone to throw to in bullpen sessions and games, right?

Except for the following.   Here are the number of undrafted free agents signed by other teams:

Arizona - 4 (all college pitchers)

Atlanta: 2 (HS shortstop and JJ Niekro, a college pitcher)

Baltimore 4 (3 college pitchers and a college catcher)

Boston 1 (college OFer)

Chicago Cubs 4 (one college catcher, 3 college pitchers)

Chicago White Sox 5 (4 college pitchers and 1 college catcher)

Cincinnati 5 (2 college pitchers, one college catcher, two college OFers)

Colorado 1 (college pitcher)

Detroit 0

Houston 7 (all college pitchers)

Kansas City 2 (both college pitchers)

Los Angeles Angels 22 (5 college pitchers, 16 college position players, 1 HS position player)

NOTE: The Angels drafted all college pitchers in the draft)

Los Angeles Dodgers 7 (3 college pitchers, 4 college position players)

Miami 5 (2 college pitchers, 2 college catchers, 1 college OFer)

Milwaukee 3 (all college pitchers)

Minnesota 3 (all college pitchers)

NY Mets 1 (college pitcher)

NY Yankees 2 (college pitcher, college OFer)

Oakland 2 (college pitcher, college 1B)

Philadelpia 10 (7 college pitchers, 3 college position players)

Pittsburgh 1 (college pitcher)

San Diego 6 (4 college pitchers, 2 college position players)

San Francisco 3 (1 college pitcher, 2 college position players)

Seattle 2 (1 college pitcher, 1 college OFer)

St. Louis 4 (3 college pitchers, 1 college catcher)

Tampa 2 (both college pitchers)

Texas 4 (1 HS player, 1 college pitcher, 1 college OFer, 1 college catcher)

Toronto 2 (both college pitchers)

Washington 8 (3 college pitchers, 3 college catchers, 2 college position players

So what do we make of this?

• The Indians were in the bottom half of teams signing undrafted free agents.   
• After drafting almost all pitchers they drafted only catchers.
• The most comparable team in the draft to them, the Angels, used the undrafted pool to bring in position players to balance their draft between college position players and pitchers)

I don't know how much each of these teams had left in their draft budgets but I would have to guess, with $150,000 left in their budget plus $125,000 per signing without touching that $150,000 (or using it to augment the $125,000) we could have signed some guys.

Remember, the life blood of MLB player development is having players to develop.

Just saying.