Late Bloomers: Raúl Ibañez

Usually when a college baseball player is drafted in the 36th round and still has eligibility left, they choose to go back to school. That round is so low that it literally doesn’t exist anymore. Most players heard their name called that late and said, “No thanks, I’ll pass.”

But not Raúl Ibañez.

Nine of the 13 players drafted ahead of him in the 36th round of the 1992 draft didn’t sign. Most of the players drafted in the prior round also didn’t sign. It simply wasn’t a round that produced viable major league players. In the history of that round of the draft, only 47 players reached the major leagues, and two of them never played an inning. Among the 36ers to reach the big leagues is current Yankee pitcher Nestor Cortes. Perhaps the most successful of the group was pitcher Rick Langford, who signed with the Indians in 1972 in large part because he’d refused to sign after being drafted by the Cardinals in the 11th round in 1971 and then watching his draft stock fall so far the next year that it appeared to be his last chance at a pro career. He eventually won 73 big league games. He’s one of the rare exceptions.

So it may not have been prudent for Ibañez to sign with the Mariners when they drafted him after his freshman year at Miami Dade College. He had just turned 20 and could have gone back to school where he was an outfielder and occasional catcher, though not particularly good at either position.

But Ibañez had tried that path just a year before, without much success. He’ been drafted out of high school in 1991 by Rangers in the 54th round, a round so low that many teams elected to pass rather than draft a player. Only 3 of the 18 players taken in that round signed. None of them ultimately made it to the big leagues. Ibañez, like most of the players taken that low, decided to go to college instead of signing, but after hitting just .268/.373/.339 as a freshman he saw his draft position only improve to the 36th round. It didn’t appear he was making much progress in the minds of scouts, so he signed on with the Mariners and hoped to develop as a pro instead.