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Oregon State pitcher Ben Wetzler has been suspended since the start of college baseball season. The NCAA is investigating whether he retained the services of an agent to negotiate with the Phillies, who drafted him in the fifth round in 2013 but were unable to sign him. Now it seems the Phillies have snitched on him, so that if he won't play for them, he can't play his senior year of college either.
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Why would the Phillies do this? It is almost inexplicable. They have nothing to gain—Wetzler is gone, and Philadelphia will receive a compensatory sixth rounder this summer—and everything to lose. Non-senior prospects generally indicate their "signability" before a team selects them. You should now expect very few of them to be open to talking with the Phillies. If, as MLB.com's Jim Callis surmises, the Phillies ratted out Wetzler in anger for not signing with them, it's petty, vindictive, and ultimately self-defeating.
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But the Phillies are just useful idiots in this situation. The real outrage should be reserved for the NCAA, whose inflexible "no agent" rule is illogical and immoral. If Wetzler retained an agent to help him negotiate a pro contract, one he ultimately declined to sign, it did zero harm to amateurism. He is not being paid. No one is making money off him. The rules say a player can retain his eligibility even after being drafted—so why take away his agency to make a full and informed decision on whether to return to school or go pro?
These are kids. Sometimes teenagers, sometimes dealing with contracts in the millions of dollars. They don't know what they're doing, the NCAA wants to make sure it stays that way, and the Phillies are eager to help.
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