We often talk about the sim randomly seeding great prospects late in drafts, right? Check this one out.

23yo SP, 58 Overall, 23 Dur 77 Sta, 72 Health, 81 Patience, 89 Makeup, 38 Control, 51/60 Splits, Pitches 75/61/47/56.
Might not be a stud, but definitely a major league prospect.

Player showed up in this year's minor league free agents. So, a college senior who was drafted and went unsigned, right?

Nope. He was NEVER DRAFTED. First time I've seen that.
That means either he was a "Probably won't sign" who was passed over all 25 rounds by all 32 teams, or he was NEVER SCOUTED by anyone, or, I dunno, he's never played organized ball.

Offered a Big League deal; he only wants one year. Humble kid. Offer a Minor League with ST Invite? "There's generous and then there's you."

So, assuming everyone scouts the kid, he's gonna be gifted to whatever team has done the worst job maintaining their minor league pitching staffs.

I suppose the really cynical thing to do, if I really wanted him, would be to release all my minor league starters immediately, right? LOL.

I suppose you could offer him a one year major league contract to make sure he is in your system. Then just assign him to hiA or something.

https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=506426&threadID=11336250#l_11336250

I had something similar

If it was a position player, I'd agree with that. But pitchers can develop for a lot longer. And what if he turns out to be a DITR?

So if a player is drafted but he rejects the offer, would he show up in the free agent pool the next season and not show that he was drafted? Or would he just vaporize?

1) Agree with bripat, sort of. I would expect this player to get at most 12-ish points of development in splits and control, 10-ish in pitches. 60 control, 60/70 splits, 85/70 pitches is a back-end guy, reasonable mopup given his ST/DUR. And I don't have to be wrong by much for him to be a useful SP5.

2) bj-- 23 you FA with no prior contract are always either (a) college seniors who were looking to sign but never got an offer, or (b) these random drops, whom I've always assumed were in the draft pool but scouted by no one. If they were not perfectly signable and they don't get a deal done, they will go do whatever it is they were threatening to do that is not baseball (play hockey, go to grad school in Scandinavian Studies-- whatever their message said), and vanish from the player pool forever.