The high school Kenyan with a 98 MPH fastball and a solid slider had told people his mother had always valued being smart above all other things, and most everyone understood he meant it—meaning the guy with a 10/4/6 talent rating fell and fell as the draft went on. He fell all the way to the very last pick in the draft, where the YS9 staff decided to try to make something happen.
That something came in the form of a $5M offer.
Given that Malecela has said he wanted $3M, give or take, the Nine thought they had a reliver.
“We’ve got that cash right now,” said GM Ron Collins, “and Bo (owner Bo Jordan) agreed to take a chance similar to the one we took with Carlos Valle some years back. “We were surprised to see him turn that down.”
Yes, you heard that right.
Ahmad Malecela, the 628th pick in the draft, turned down $5M to, instead, go to college, where he will presumably take up the study of economics.