Last year, when agent Scott Boras refused to lower the asking price for his client, No. 1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg, there was a realistic chance that the Washington Nationals would not come to terms with the prolific young fireballer.
The most hyped prospect the game has ever seen going unsigned would have been a huge deal, but each year, several hundred drafted players don’t end up signing with the teams that pick them.
If a team doesn’t show serious interest in a guy it picks, sometimes a high school player will decide to give college a try, or an underclassman undergrad will choose to play another season in hopes of earning a more lucrative contract offer in the next year’s draft. Plus, there’s a whole plethora of personal problems that no one can predict.
Most of them disappear and are never really heard from again; the executives who snubbed them sleep just fine knowing that “the one that got away” wouldn’t make for a very exciting fish story.
But a small minority end up haunting those scouts’ dreams for the rest of their lives.
Some snubbed stars are now top prospects. Others are perennial All-Stars, and a few are unquestioned studs who would have dramatically changed the futures of the franchises who forgot about them.
Here are the 20 most regrettable unsigned draft picks in MLB history.