The Cleveland Indians pulled off a potential steal last night when they selected left handed pitcher Brady Aiken with the number 17 pick in this year's MLB draft.
Most baseball fans will remember the 18 year-old lefty being selected number 1 overall by the Astros in last year's draft and forgoing to sign with Houston largely because the Astros' medical staff spotted signs of trouble with Aiken's elbow. As a result, Aiken and the Astros could not land on a deal that was satisfactory for both parties and Aiken walked away from millions of dollars to join the IMG Baseball Academy in Florida. Unfortunately for the young pitcher, in just the first inning of his first start for IMG, he felt discomfort in his elbow (a torn UCL as it turned out) and had to undergo Tommy John surgery, which was successfully performed in March.
In what has been widely considered as one of the weakest draft classes in recent memory, for the Indians to get a potential All Star pitcher with their 17th pick is a brilliant selection by the Cleveland head office. The 6'4 prospect has a mid-90s fastball that could touch 97mph pre-surgery, to go along with two plus off-speed pitches, a curve and a change-up that had scouts raving. This is a guy who has top of the rotation ability, if healthy.
Now that's the big question going forward: Can Aiken successfully recover from his surgery and regain the velocity and control that made him such a stud prospect in high school? The Indians organisation has some success with pitchers coming off Tommy John surgery, namely Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco, so I feel pretty good about Aiken being taken care of and developed properly.
The Indians went into this draft with a 'take the best player available' mentality and they certainly delivered. Aiken will receive a lot less than he was initially offered with the Astros last year (roughly $6.5 million initially, then about $3 million after his elbow issue was discovered) but I'm hopeful he will sign with Cleveland just to put 2014 behind him and get on with his professional career. He must be desperate to forget all about the past and get back to pitching.
Drafting Aiken is a great pick for the Indians, and the young pitcher has a high ceiling, despite the high risk involved. It's been well documented that the Tribe's farm system has been deemed underwhelming in terms of top prospect pitchers, so the addition of Aiken should help to address that. I for one can't wait to see him pitch in and Indians uniform.
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