With the 2020 MLB First-Year Player Draft in the book – and a thin book it is – the process of contacting and negotiating with eligible* undrafted amateur players began on June 14, at noon PT. Just a few hours later, the Dodgers signed their first undrafted free agent under the rules, right-handed pitcher Robbie Peto, who pitched for Stetson University in central Florida in 2019; but more about Robbie later.

(*Teams can only contact undrafted amateur players who have notified MLB that they are interested in signing a professional contract).

MLB teams are permitted to sign as many of these undrafted free agents as they choose, as long as the player does not receive more than a $20,000 signing bonus (wink, wink). For a well-regarded amateur prospect, $20,000 will not be the primary factor in his decision-making process. More likely, a team’s reputation for developing talent (pitching or hitting) and how quickly he might move through the farm system will be much more important.

With the Dodgers unsurpassed reputation for developing young players, they should be in an excellent position to sign several very talented players. But do not expect the team to sign a boat-load of these undrafted free agents; the Dodgers are very pleased with the prospects currently in the system.

Oh yes, the “wink-wink.” Baseball America’s Josh Norris wrote a very interesting article that was published on June 14. Noteworthy excerpts:

• “…teams are finding creative ways to lure players from the massive pool of undrafted free agents..one particularly intriguing avenue they’ve explored is offering generous packages of money for college players. Such packages are allowed because they are not paid out in actual cash, but in agreements to be paid later.”
• “For example, a team could offer a college junior to pay for the value of his senior year at school…plus, they could offer the equivalent value of two years at a high-end graduate school…that number is only a value and not actual cash. And, it does not have to be to the school in which the player is currently enrolled.”
• Hypothetically, if a player the Dodgers want to sign for $20,000 is currently enrolled at Cal State Fullerton, the Dodgers could offer to pay for his senior year at USC, and two years at Stanford University graduate school. The key being that the team isn’t paying the player directly, it pays value out to the school at a later date.
• “…because the player receives a package worth the equivalent of a year at a premier graduate school, it doesn’t mean he has to spend it that way…if two years of tuition at grad school somewhere else costs less than what he received, the player can use some of that money for books and other expenses that college students typically incur. That money can go toward housing as well—even though living in an apartment off-campus isn’t technically a college expense. For the money to be usable in that case, a player can take as little as one online course. From there, he submits his lease to the team, which then reimburses him for the cost of housing.”

Players receiving $20,000 as a signing bonus could receive benefits several times greater.

Back to Robbie Peto:

• 6’ 4” / 215 lbs, will be 22-years old on July 10, 2020.
• Pitching for Stetson this year, he went 3-0 with a 1.78 ERA in 25.1 innings pitched, with 41-strike outs and 13 walks.
• The Dodgers selected him in the 30th round of the 2016 draft, but he did not sign. Instead, he elected to enroll at the University of North Carolina.
• Highly touted out of high school, back problems resulted in a redshirt year for the Tarheels.
• He then transferred to a Florida JC, and then onto Stetson.

Wonder where he’s going to grad school (wink, wink)?

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