Since the start of the baseball\u2019s amateur draft, high school players have always been eligible. Selecting a young player out of high school and offering him enough money to forego college was just one of the ways to ensure an organization secured top-notch talent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
If that player agreed to a deal, which included a signing bonus, then he would report to the minors and start at the lowest rung of the minor league system. Even if it didn\u2019t work out, he\u2019d hopefully have money left over from that signing bonus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
If the player didn\u2019t sign and instead went to college, he\u2019d have to play a varied amount of time in the college system before he could re-enter the draft. The team that originally signed him would no longer hold his draft rights, making him available to the rest of the league\u2014including, of course, that original team.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Sometimes going to college paid off. There have been numerous instances of players heading to college and improving their draft stock. However, the inverse was more likely to occur\u2014college baseball didn\u2019t go as well, injuries occurred, the player didn\u2019t improve all that much, etc., and then his draft stock plummeted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Before the days of NIL, that player would be out of luck when it came to money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Now, in the days of NIL and revenue sharing, I wonder how much that has changed. How much do college baseball <\/em>players make? Does that NIL money that wreaks havoc in college football and college basketball trickle down enough to convince a player from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to choose the Sooners over the Astros?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now, it seems that such a decision may soon become a moot point for high school baseball players.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n