Matt Harrington
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Matt Harrington (born February 1, 1982) is a baseball player who has become something of a poster boy for bad decisions. He is famous for being drafted five times, each time slipping further down the draft board, and it is now highly unlikely if the one-time top prospect will ever reach the majors.
A right-hander with a 95+ mph fastball, Harrington was considered one of the top pitching prospects in the 2000 MLB Draft. He was selected by the Colorado Rockies with the 7th overall pick. However, Harrington never played in the Rockies' system because of failure to agree a contract. Harrington and his agent Tommy Tanzer wanted a $4.95 million signing bonus (25 percent more than what the previous year's top pick Josh Hamilton had received). The negotiations proved acrimonious, with Tanzer accusing the Rockies of backing out of an alleged pre-draft agreement to sign for his stated asking price, and the Rockies denying that such an agreement ever took place. The Rockies' final offer was $4 million and a guaranteed major league callup by the end of 2002. Harrington turned down the deal, sat out the season and re-entered the draft in 2001. While Harrington and his parents publicly supported their agent at the time, eventually they fired Tanzer and subsequently filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit for giving bad advice. Tanzer was replaced with super-agent Scott Boras, who vowed to get Harrington to the point where his market value to his high school form. However he too proved unsuccessful getting Harrington signed.
In the 2001 Draft, Harrington slipped into the second round, being drafted by the San Diego Padres with the 58th overall pick. The Padres offered him a $1.2 million signing bonus, but like the previous year, Harrington rejected the offer. Boras sought twice that amount. He played briefly in the independent leagues, putting up unimpressive numbers for St. Paul of the Northern League and Long Beach of the now-defunct Western Baseball League, going a combined 0-3 with a 7.15 ERA. He was released by Long Beach's manager Steve Yeager. The Padres scouted Harrington in May 2002 just before he was scheduled to re-enter the draft, and upon seeing his diminished pitching skills, notified him that they were not interested in signing him to a contract, and would not be drafting him again.
In 2002, Harrington entered the draft for a third time. This time, he was taken by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 13th round. Again, Harrington failed to agree a contract, making him the longest holdout in baseball history. Their offers ranged in the $5,000- $200,000 range, standard 13th round money.
In 2003, he fell to the 24th round of the draft (711th overall), before he was selected by the Cincinnati Reds, who by now were just offering little more that a chance to play.
In 2004, he would be drafted by the New York Yankees in the 36th Round (1,089 overall), who didn't even bother to offer him a contract.
In 2005, he was undrafted by all 32 teams after 50 rounds. In a way this is the free agency that he always wanted. However due to his long layoff and diminished pitching skills he has virtually no chance of getting any significant signing bonus, let alone $5 million. If he is to see a million dollar Payday, will have to sign whatever minor league contract is offered to, and work his way to the major leagues, and earn his money there.... a highly unlikely scenario.
For the past four years, Harrington has pitched for the Fort Worth Cats of the independent American Association. Although his numbers with the team are solid, including a 5-0 record in 2005, scouts say Harrington has lost considerable velocity on his fastball and is no longer a prospect.
As of 2006, he still pitches for the Fort Worth baseball club, was passed up again in the 2006 Major League draft, and now supplements his meager baseball income with an off season job at a local Target department store.
No one can ever know for sure if Harrington will ever have reached the Major Leagues if he signed right away, because it is not known if he lost his stuff as a result of his layoff, or he would have lost his stuff anyway in the minor leagues. He did however pass up a chance to bank $4 million, and that money can never be made back.
On October 10, 2006, Matt Harrington signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs, ending his six-year holdout. He received no signing bonus, and will attend the Cubs' 2007 spring training camp with the hope of landing a position on a Cubs minor league team.
