{"id":19965,"date":"2019-05-21T11:25:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T15:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/?p=19965"},"modified":"2019-05-21T11:25:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T15:25:18","slug":"report-carter-stewart-play-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2019\/05\/21\/report-carter-stewart-play-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Carter Stewart, Former First-Round Pick, Signs to Play in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a surprising turn of events, right-handed pitcher\u00a0<strong>Carter Stewart\u00a0<\/strong>is reportedly heading to Japan. Stewart was eligible for the 2019 MLB Draft and was rated as the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ken_Rosenthal\/status\/1130728013530689537\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">No. 38 prospect<\/a> for the draft. The terms of his contract are not yet known, but Ken Rosenthal reported the deal is with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Japanese Pacific League.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">RHP Carter Stewart, who attended Eastern Florida State College after failing to sign with the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Braves?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Braves<\/a> as the No. 8 overall pick in last year\u2019s draft, is in agreement on a contract with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Japanese Pacific League, sources tell The Athletic.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ken_Rosenthal\/status\/1130727848996737024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 21, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>Carter Stewart Heading to Japan<\/h1>\n<p>Stewart&#8217;s journey has already been an intriguing one. He was selected No. 8 overall in 2018 by the <a href=\"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/mlb-teams\/atlanta-braves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Atlanta Braves<\/a>. Unfortunately, the two sides were unable to reach terms after a wrist injury arose on Stewart&#8217;s post-draft physical.<\/p>\n<p>Originally committed to Mississippi State, Stewart elected to attend Eastern Florida State Junior College in order to be eligible for the 2019 draft. Now, instead of entering the draft again, Stewart will head overseas. There are never any guarantees in the draft, and some experts had Stewart sliding down pre-draft rankings after an up-and-down season. Instead of risking his draft position, which would likely play a roll in determining his signing bonus, Stewart apparently decided to sign elsewhere.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Braves?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Braves<\/a> did not sign Stewart, 19, after concerns arose after last year\u2019s draft about an asymptomatic wrist issue. By attending junior college, he became eligible to re-enter the draft this year, and Baseball America had ranked him No. 38 among its top 500 draft prospects.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ken_Rosenthal\/status\/1130728013530689537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 21, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>The Decision<\/h3>\n<p>Though terms of the contract are not yet known, Rosenthal did report that Stewart was seeking $7 million. By comparison, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/2019-mlb-draft-pools-and-bonus-values\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">slot value for the No. 1 overall pick<\/a> given to the <a href=\"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/mlb-teams\/baltimore-orioles\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Baltimore Orioles<\/a> is $8,415,300. Additionally, only the top three picks in this year&#8217;s draft have a slot value over $7 million. Once again, anything can happen in a draft, but it was highly unlikely that Stewart would go that high.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Terms not yet known, but Stewart almost certainly will sign for far more than he would have received in the draft; he was believed to be seeking $7M. Once he signs with the Hawks, he would need team to post him at some later date if he wanted to join a major-league organization. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/M3mPurf0t4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/M3mPurf0t4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Ken_Rosenthal\/status\/1130830838231371776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 21, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>What&#8217;s Next<\/h3>\n<p>While Stewart is moving on to professional baseball and will likely receive a decent contract to play in Japan, his path to Major League Baseball becomes even foggier. Like Rosenthal indicated, Stewart will need the Japanese team he signs with to post his rights at a later date if he wishes to transition to MLB. That is not to say it is impossible as plenty of players have made the jump from Japan to MLB. However, it is unprecedent for a potential first-round pick to bypass the draft and elect to head to Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"WsXczQaBQ3h5fTeZqwiofQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/475290091\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'WsXczQaBQ3h5fTeZqwiofQ',sig:'0tPEfGEANGFWDG12yJFWEQGJWMsRunEwiHHUB1Dc2a0=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'475290091',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carter Stewart, who was selected No. 8 overall by the Atlanta Braves in 2018, is reportedly ditching the MLB draft by signing a deal overseas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1230,"featured_media":19969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,926,1071,35],"tags":[68,2018,69,1308],"class_list":["post-19965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-braves","category-milb","category-mlb","category-news","tag-baseball","tag-carter-stewart","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-prospects"],"modified_by":"Paul Harvey","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}