The Houston Astros have failed to sign two of their top five draft picks in 2014, including the number one pick overall, Brady Aiken. According to Murray Chass, and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports confirms the report, Major League Baseball Players Association has filed a grievance against the Houston Astros for manipulating the signings.
Can confirm union filed grievance against #Astros, as 1st reported by Murray Chass. Argues team tried to manipulate signings of Aiken, etc.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 24, 2014
The players union is arguing that the Astros manipulated the signing situations of both Aiken and fifth-round pick Jacob Nix after a dispute over Aiken’s medical reports arose. The Astros had reportedly offered Aiken only $5 million after having originally agreeing to a $6.5 million bonus. They also did not sign Nix after reportedly agreeing to a $1.5 million deal.
If the Astros would have been successful in signing Nix, after failing to sign Aiken, the club would have been over the pool allocation for signed players and thereby be subjected to a penalty that would cause them to forfeit each of their next two first-round choices.
According to Jim Callis of MLB.com, Casey Close of Excel Sports Management, who is advising Aiken and Nix, accused Houston of trying to manipulate its draft pool to lower Aiken’s bonus and create extra money to sign 21st-round pick Mac Marshall. Aiken flew to Houston on June 23 for his physical to finalize the deal with the Astros, but the club became concerned with the size of the ulnar collateral ligament in Aiken’s left elbow, his pitching arm. The team subsequently reduced their offer to $3,168,840 from his assigned pick value of $7,922,100 which equals the minimum 40 percent required to receive the number two overall pick as compensation for not signing Aiken.
Houston Astros owner Jim Crane released this statement:
“Certainly in the Draft — and I haven’t looked at the numbers in a while — but there’s a long way before these guys become Major League players. They did sign a very high percentage of the guys we drafted. You’d like to get all of them. We’re certainly disappointed we didn’t get these two, but we’ll move on and keep working and deploy the money in other areas, international or free agents. We’ll continue to get better. We’re all disappointed we couldn’t get him signed.”
Major League Baseball Players Association Director Tony Clark released the following statement after Friday’s deadline passed:
“Today, two young men should be one step closer to realizing their dreams of becoming Major League ballplayers,” the statement read. “Because of the actions of the Houston Astros, they are not. The MLBPA, the players and their advisers are exploring all legal options.”
Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow responded, “We were following the rules all along, We advised Major League Baseball of what we were doing every step of the way. We didn’t do anything unethical. We didn’t try to game the system. We tried to do what was best for the Houston Astros in accordance with the current [Collective Bargaining Agreement] and the Draft system. It’s frustrating listening to people who are saying we tried to pull a fast one.”
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