The phone rings. It’s four-thirty in the morning on Day Three of the 2017 MLB draft. Relief pitcher Sam Delaplane is asleep at his parent’s house in San Jose. His grandparents are arriving later and his girlfriend, back in Michigan, is waiting to Facetime before any news breaks. Sam rolls over and stares at his phone. If it were any other day, he might not have answered.
A scout, not for the Mariners, is on the other line and asking Sam, rapid fire, what he’d be willing to sign for: would he take this, what about this.