News today that MLB has granted Barret Loux an exception to its rules and allowed him to become a free agent in September of this year instead of having to re-enter next year's draft class puts the final cap on a situation that was funky in several ways.
Should the Diamondbacks have known about Loux's arm issues before drafting him in the first place?
It was public information that Loux had surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow last year, but without further evaluation, that isn't a show-stopper.
In the NBA, teams routinely will do independent physical exams before the draft and use that information to make their decision.Remember, DeJuan Blair dropped from a top-10 pick to the second round based on his lack of knee ligaments.
That information came out before the draft.
We don't know what information the D-backs requested from Loux and whether it was provided. We don't know if they asked for a team doctor to do an MRI and new physical or if that request was denied.
There's a lot we don't know about how this all went down.
It may be that the D-backs, knowing they had the option of rejecting Loux and getting a compensatory pick, just took a flier on him. Or maybe they botched the exam.
Just. Don't. Know.
At the end of the day, the D-backs don't lose the pick and, if anything, got to use some of the money saved to sign another player, Ty Linton, to a $1.25 million bonus. It took that much money to convince the 14th round pick (421st overall) to give up on his football dreams.
Between signing Linton (instead of losing him to the University of North Carolina) and getting the seventh pick in next year's draft, no harm done.
Loux, who insists his arm is good-to-go, gets to try and convince some other team to let him pitch.
Move along. Nothing to see here.