Baseball: assignments straight out of school

The Game Room
1

For baseball players coming out of school, I expect that most, if not all, get assigned to a short-season single-A team. Correct me if I’m wrong about that, but I figure that’s why they have short season leagues.

My question is: How often do players get assigned directly to higher levels? That is, about what percentage come out of school and get immediately placed in double-A, triple-A, or even the majors? Is it just the occasional hotshot pitcher or do some players go directly to higher levels every year?

2

The higher draft picks, especially those out of college, are often started higher up. A top pick with four years of college ball would probably have already seen a higher level of competition, IMO.

3

Jim Abbott is a famous example of someone who went straight from college to the Major League. And there are others: List of baseball players who went directly to Major League Baseball - Wikipedia

4

Yup, not too many, only 2 in the last 19 years. It used to be more common but it appears to have faded out of fashion.

5

So every team sends at least a few players directly to AA or AAA every year? Or perhaps just most years?

Thanks for the link to the Wiki-list (should have figured there’d be one of those). It looks like 31 players have gone directly to the majors, not counting Bonus Babies and Eddie Gaedel. Although that list is labeled incomplete, so there could be more.