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Undrafted free agents are indeed fun. Who is more of an underdog to root for than a guy who got passed over at least 900 times in the draft? Who do people relate to at a heart-to-heart level when they make a big-league debut than a T.J. Rivera. Whose cause more personal heartbreak upon their release than a Nelson Figueroa.
Unlike foreign-born free agents, these guys only ended up in free agency after getting yawned at through the draft, and perhaps had to show up to a tryout camp to get scouted at all. And as the Rivera and Figueroa examples underscore, they're also more likely than most to be locally sourced.
But not this year. This year, with the draft blessedly cut down to five rounds, a lot of these guys are dudes who've been heavily scouted, and have every chance of making the bigs, and many will sign only after fielding offers from several teams — not that we shouldn't expect big league teams to conspire to fix these players bonuses. It's what big league teams do.
These FFAs have recently signed with the theoretical abstraction known as the Mets organization.
First to sign was Brandon McIlwain. Bernie Mac came to the Mets through the most circuitous of routes. He played for South Carolina for two seasons, but only just, appearing in 10 games.
Then he transferred to Cal-Davis. Forced to sit out for a year as a baseball transfer, he instead played football, getting a lot of time at QB in an unusual three-man rotation.
In 2019, he returned to the diamond and got more time, appearing in 20 games, going .258 / .309 / .435 // .744, including a big walkoff homer against rival Standford. He was set to play more in 2020 but got off to a slow start, and like everybody else, saw his season cut short by COVID-19. No matter which sport he plays, he likes to keep things simple.
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Obviously he's a projectable athlete who you'd like to have seen get a lot more reps by the age he's reached, so hopefully there'll be some catching up if things ever get started. In a normal year, he'd go straight to Brooklyn and strike out a million times but still get pushed to Columbia by the next season.
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