Houston Astros: Maybe the Astros Handled the Brady Aiken Issue Correctly

The Houston Astros fell under heavy scrutiny after the 2014 MLB draft last June. The Astros drafted high school pitcher Brady Aiken with the first overall pick, and both sides agreed on a $6.5 million signing bonus.

Only one formality stood in the way: a physical.

As it turned out, it was much more important than that. An MRI revealed some issues with Aiken's pitching elbow, most importantly an abnormally small ulnar collateral ligament, the part of the body that is repaired with Tommy John surgery. Consequently, the Astros lowered their offer to $5 million, which was the beginning of a nasty sequence of events.

Casey Close, a well respected agent and Aiken's adviser, accused Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow and the organization for a variety of things, including manipulating the system and breaking the rules. He also claimed that the Astros leaked Aiken's injury information for the sole purpose of leveraging them for a lesser amount of money.

In addition, Close refused to accept the fact Aiken was even injured.

"Brady has been seen by some of the most experienced and respected orthopedic arm specialists in the country," Close told Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. "And all of those doctors have acknowledged that he's not injured and that he's ready to start his professional career."

But as the Astros claimed, Aiken wasn't necessarily injured at that specific point in time, but the MRI results suggested he might get hurt down the road, and they weren't willing to pay millions of dollars for such a risk.

Larry Goren/Associated Press

High draft picks out of high school are already enough of a risk when they are completely healthy; injured ones are that much more hit-and-miss.

Well, the Astros' fear may have already come to fruition.

Aiken, who decided to pitch for the IMG Academy so he will be eligible for this year's draft, had to be removed due to an arm injury after only 12 pitches in his first start of the season on March 19.

Here is a piece of an article written by John Manuel of Baseball America:

"

[Baseball America writer Josh] Norris spoke to the home plate umpire, whose job includes joining injury-related conferences, said he heard Aiken tell the IMG coaching staff, during the visit to the mound that led to his removal from the game, that he had tightness in his arm.

"

No real specifics have been released yet, but this is exactly why the Astros were wary of Aiken. They did not want to see this happen to him in the minor leagues, when he would be under contract with the club.

Now to be clear, when the club initially let Aiken walk, I was somewhat critical of the Astros, especially since they also lost out on highly touted prep pitchers Jacob Nix and Mac Marshall, whose deals were contingent on Aiken signing below slot value.

But the Astros had a plan and they stuck to their guns, and they should be admired for that.

They might have made a bad decision by drafting Aiken in the first place, but they refused to compound that mistake by throwing millions of dollars at a player they didn't have complete faith in.

As Aiken proved on Friday, his arm is delicate and the Astros did not want to deal with all that risk. Pitchers tabbed as healthy get hurt often enough as it is, so it doesn't make much sense to spend money on someone who is already showing signs at a young age of future damage.

Also, don't forget that because the Astros failed to sign Aiken, they get the second pick of the 2015 draft in addition to the fifth pick they earned for their 2014 season record.

So they will have two of the top five picks in the upcoming draft, giving them a chance to replenish their farm system that missed out on a premier player last year.

It definitely wasn't the popular move at the time, but not signing Brady Aiken might turn out to be a prudent decision for the Astros.