MLB Draft: Top high school draft prospect withdraws from draft
In a surprising development, one of the top pitching prospects in the upcoming MLB draft withdrew his name from consideration on Sunday night
One week from today, teams will begin making their selections in the 2018 MLB draft. After an announcement on Sunday night, Mike Vasil will not be one of them.
Vasil was a highly-touted pitcher that many thought would impress enough this spring to push for a selection in the top half of the first round, but he struggled with some injury issues and never really got on the field as much as he would have liked between the injury and cold weather due to Vasil being in Massachusetts.
We had Mike Vasil going to the Arizona Diamondbacks with the 39th overall selection in our most recent mock draft, and based on a number of reports, he likely would have moved up in the mock draft to come later today. Instead, he released this statement Sunday night:
— Michael Vasil (@mvasil17) May 27, 2018
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This is a huge “get” for the University of Virginia, and Vasil easily becomes a top prospect for the 2021 draft right now. He will be pitching in the tough ACC, which will certainly give him plenty of challenge, but as his statement and following responses from Vasil have affirmed, he is looking forward to attending college and wants to ensure he has the fall-back option when he attempts his major league career.
One recent discussion with a scout led to a discussion about this very topic, with the scout saying he would always make sure he got a degree due to the active way that Major League Baseball is working to keep minor league salaries and benefits down.
If that scout’s view becomes more prevalent, announcements like Mike Vasil just made may become much more frequent going into the draft, and not the surprise that his was.