Were it not for a stress fracture in his back that ended his senior season after it barely began, the Braves said left-hander Kolby Allard of San Clemente (Calif.) High School wouldn’t have been available in the middle of the first round of the major league draft.
The injury happened, and the Braves selected Allard with their 14th overall pick of the draft on Monday night.
Allard entered the 2015 season as a first-team Perfect Game preseason All-American and has what Braves scouting director Brian Bridges called the best curveball in the draft. He missed most of the season with the lower-back injury, pitching only seven innings and allowing a .143 batting average before he was hurt in mid-March.
“I couldn’t be more happy to start my career with the Atlanta Braves,” Allard said Monday night, about one hour after he was selected. “First-class organization, first-class people, and, like, a ton of history. I couldn’t be more grateful for them, that I’ll get the opportunity to play major league baseball. I couldn’t be more excited.”
The assigned signing-bonus slot value for the No. 14 pick was $2,842,400, and the bonus will presumably be very close to that. He’s represented by Casey Close of Excel Sports Management.
“We haven’t agreed on money as far as I know,” Allard said, “but I don’t think that’s going to be much of a problem.”
Allard was the first of five picks the Braves held in the top 75 selections on the opening night of the three-day draft. Still to come Monday night for the Braves were the Nos. 28, 41, 54 and 75 selections. The first two rounds and supplemental-round selections of the draft were to be completed Monday.
Bridges said Allard, who is 6 feet 1 and 180 pounds, has been throwing for five weeks and is fully recovered and “ready to go.” He was rated the No. 8 pitching prospect and No. 18 overall prospect by Baseball America before the draft.
“This is a kid you target early on in the summer to follow,” said Bridges, who saw Allard throw in the summer after his junior year. “I saw him throw in the bullpen the night I went, and I thought it was a pipe dream. I said, there’s no way this kid gets to us. But we were fortunate that some unfortunate things happened, and here we are.”
As a 16-year-old junior, Allard had a 1.32 ERA and struck out 98 in 63 2/3 innings with 17 walks. He features a mid-90 mph fastball, an outstanding curveball and a developing change-up.
Allard had committed to UCLA, but the Braves have been asssured he will sign and bypass college.
“Oh, yeah. It’s done. This kid’s ready to go. No doubt,” Bridges said. “It was probably fortunate he had a little hiccup this year, for us, to get to this spot in the draft. Great kid, got a good arm, fastball 92-94, and like I said, one of the best amateur breaking balls in the draft.”
The Braves were told the injury might have resulted from Allard tweaking his back while competing in a home-run derby, then continuing to pitch and play afterward until it worsened.
“I’m not worried about my back,” Allard said. “It wasn’t like a career thing, it was just a stupid, freak little thing, and I’m just ready to put it past me and get back out on the mound.”
The Braves were to make five picks Monday night. When the draft resumes Tuesday at 1 p.m. with the third round, their first pick will be No. 89, their regular selection in the third round.
The Braves acquired the No. 28 pick of the draft as compensation for losing free-agent pitcher Ervin Santana after the 2014 season. They got the No. 41 pick from the Padres as part of the trade that sent closer Craig Kimbrel to San Diego the night before opening day, and acquired the No. 75 pick from the Diamondbacks, officially as part of the trade for minor leaguer Victor Reyes, though unofficially as part of the spring trade for Arizona pitcher Trevor Cahill.
The No. 54 pick was the Braves’ regular second-round pick based on order of finish in the 2014 standings.
