If a player wasnt signed out of high school,can he be signed as a free agent? Does this happen alot? why or why not?

Yes. No. Don't know.

A player is able to sign as a free agent if he was not DRAFTED
after high school. Also, once attending first day of college must
wait until after junior year or is 21 years old within 45 days of June draft. Exception would be JC(Community College) when he would be eligible after 1 year of college. If a player is not drafted when he becomes eligible then he would be able to sign as a free agent. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks.

quote:

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Originally posted by njbb:
If a player wasnt signed out of high school,can he be signed as a free agent? Does this happen alot? why or why not?

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The other two posters were correct with their statements. The reason it does not happen very often, is that if the player was a prospect, he would have been drafted out of high school.

njbb,
I don't know how many free agent signings there are each year compared to players drafted. Three players who I played with were drafted or played pro ball. One draftee never signed. One signed and played in the minors and the free agent played in the big leagues.

Most prospects are drafted out of HS but the system is far from perfect. The scouts do a pretty good job of projecting but there are too many unknowns when it comes to making predictions about human beings. There are also some good college seniors who are considered at least marginal prospects but are not drafted because they have little or no leverage who are later signed as free agents.

I asked because when people hear that my son is in rookie ball its funny how many say they played minor league baseball... most state they were not drafted but signed out of high school....

njbb

My son played for a guy in LL who told me he pitched in high school and hurt his arm.

After chatting with the guy on the field pror to a game at a national tournament, an opposing coach yelled over to his assistant "Hey Charley, this guy played in AA with George Brett!!"

Uh, whoops.