For years, opponents of Major League Baseball's draft who believed it stifled the true value of players have hypothesized about ways to avoid its constraints. Nineteen-year-old Carter Stewart is ready to test the viability of an alternative -- and travel more than 7,500 miles from his Florida home to do it.
Stewart is in agreement on a six-year contract worth more than $7 million with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Japan's Pacific League, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN. Stewart was the No. 8 overall pick in last year's MLB draft but didn't sign after the Atlanta Braves, who believed he was injured, offered him a signing bonus well under the $4.