Blue Jays: Drafted, But Not Signed All-Stars

Each June, Major League Baseball does their Amateur Draft.  Typically in these drafts, the players being selected are either high school ballplayers or college players that have just finished their third year.

While this isn’t always the case, it is most often the case.  These players will use the threat of going back to college for one more year or the high school players to go to college.  This means if teams want to bring in this player, especially high school baseball players they may have to offer a higher signing bonus to get the player to commit to the organization rather than the education route.

Over the years, the Blue Jays have made some excellent draft choices and signed those players, other times they have taken the chance on drafting a player who was committed to a school and couldn’t entice them enough to change their route.  At times, the player may not be turning down the contract because of money offered isn’t enough by the team, sometimes it could be the player hopes they increase their value by continuing to play amateur ball, they want a school degree or the team just may have not have offered a contract.

Here is a look at some of the top players the Blue Jays drafted, but things didn’t work out for two sides to come to an agreement and the player went to school, later was re-drafted by another organization and had a superb career.  The list does not include players like Orlando Hudson who was drafted by the Blue Jays in 1996, turned them down and went on to play at Spartanburg Methodist College for a year before being drafted again by Toronto in 1997 and signed.