CHAMPAIGN — Not being selected in the 2016 MLB First-Year Player Draft didn’t stop Illinois baseball shortstop Adam Walton from pursuing his big league dreams.
The redshirt junior inked a free-agent contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, a day after the draft’s conclusion. The terms of the deal were not immediately available.
Walton played four seasons with the Illini and could have had a fifth as a result of a medical redshirt he took his freshman year. He was taken in the 2015 draft’s 20th round by the Baltimore Orioles but returned to Illinois.
Walton started 151 games for Illinois in the last three seasons, 134 of which came consecutively before that run ended this April.