Cristian Gonzalez
The draft is a very important event in the lives of athletes who are just starting their careers in sports. This selection method is used across various sports to help young players who have good prospects in collegiate leagues get the chance to have a professional career in their sport.
Although it is a great opportunity for the athletes, this experience is often fraught with anxiety for them. And of course, this is where their future is determined.
MLB Draft: Stories From Multiple Major League Pros
Trey Mancini and the beginnings of his MLB career after his bittersweet 2013 draft experience
It was full of anxiety and even anger. There were four Treys that year: Ball, Masek, Williams, and a young Michaelczewski (Mancini), and all three left before Mancini was selected in the eighth round by the Baltimore Orioles. However, Mancini was considering going back to school.
There was a guy named Trey Michalczewski who was drafted in the seventh round by the White Sox. So I heard ‘Trey’ and thought it was my name. And then they said a different last name. I think I tore my shirt.
Says Mancini
After 5 days of thinking about it, he decided to be part of the 249th selection. Despite his unpleasant sentiments at the time, the athlete remembers the entire incident fondly today. In addition, he was the only one of the 4 Treys to reach the Majors.
Pitcher Mark Appel, on the other hand, was selected twice in the first round.
First by Pittsburgh, who selected him eighth overall in 2012; however, he did not sign with the Pirates. And in 2013, The Houston Astros drafted him out of Stanford with the first pick of that year.
I was excited. “I’m from Houston, so that was really special: the team I grew up rooting for selected me […] It felt like a blessing to be able to start my professional career with the Astros.”
Appel’s words.
However, the pressure of being number 1 turned into years of anguish for the athlete. During his first few seasons, he was struggling with command and injuries, until he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2016. But that was not the end of his setbacks, and at the age of 26 he announced that he was quitting baseball.
All of this was due to the great pressure he felt to be in the number 1 team. Appel comments that people felt a predisposition about the level that was expected of him in terms of his performance and the person he was, even before they met him.
He sat out for three years before pondering a return to the field. Being away, he was able to find himself and in the process find his way back to the MLB.
On the other hand, Kevin Youkilis says that as soon as he finished a college exam he received a call from his people telling him he had been recruited.
Things were very different then than they were for Mancini or Appel in 2013. However, the athlete was very excited about this fact.
I was excited. I went crazy.
Youkilis
The predictions for where this guy would wind up were all over the place, and he didn’t have the power to inform the various teams that he would stay in school any longer. Different outlets had him with signing sights between the fifth and fifteenth round, so it all looked very uncertain.
So he did what he could and played his cards according to what was available. He managed to sign a $12,000 bond and his father put it in an account he set up for him. Among all of this, it is worth noting that players in the Minors do not earn much money, particularly at that time, so they knew that the bonus they received had to last as long as possible, because no one was going to pay for their stuff.
The difference in financial support for a baseball player who receives a first-round draft pick is very different from those in later rounds. So much so, that many times athletes chosen in later rounds after the first round decide to return to college and try again in the following years.
However, after receiving a first-round bonus or one of the following rounds, what remains is to work hard, as their talent and commitment will propel them to the top.
Cedric Mullins was part of the 403 selection in 2015.
And he’s part of the athletes who had a signing bonus offer, in this case $100,000. The position in the draft or the amount of money he would receive as a bonus for his expenses didn’t matter much to Mullins; all that mattered was to have one foot on the field, to be selected.
I was at home. This was the third day, I just kept up with the computer […] My parents were at work. I was alone, but my brother was upstairs sleeping. He had no idea what was going on, then he heard me yell, ‘Let’s go!’ We were so excited.
Mullins says of his day in the draft.
Mullins was one of six players picked in the 13th round of the 2015 draft to make it to the Major Leagues, having played 246 more games than the other five players in the same round combined. His determination early in his career would definitely make a difference in his performance on the field.
