Campus Legends – Matt Harrington

I know, some of you are thinking, “Oh yeah what ever happened to that guy?”, the other half of you are thinking, “Who?”  For those of you who don’t know Matt Harrington, he is the poster boy as to why you should sign by the signing deadline for Major League Baseball.  At one point in his career he was offered an 3.7 million dollar contract by the Colorado Rockies.  It would be the highest offer (on a per year basis) that he would ever receive.

Matt has the unique distinction of being the only person ever to be drafted by Major League baseball teams five times. First, let me give you some background on Matt.  His senior year at Palmdale High School in California, Matt racked up an 11-0 record with a 0.54 ERA, and averaged nearly two strikeouts an inning (126 in 65 innings).  He had a flame thrower for an arm as he routinely hit 98 MPH on the radar gun.  Scouts lined the bleachers in Palmdale just to see what the buzz was all about.  In the 2000 MLB draft he was originally going to be drafted by the Twins, but his agent at the time (Tommy Tanzer) told the Twins that the Rockies promised a 4.95 million dollar contract prior to the draft.  So the Twins passed and the Rockies chose Harrington.

The Rockies never got higher than 3.7 million, meanwhile Harrington, never had a fall back option, since it was his understanding that the deal was for 4.95 million.  Long story short, Harrington headed off to St. Paul to play with the Saints of the Norwest League (indy).  He had a disappointing season, didn’t sign with the Rockies and entered the 2001 draft, where he was drafted by the Padres in the second round.  Their final offer was for 1.2 million, and Matt never signed. At this point he fired his agent and hired Scott Boras.  He ends up pitching for Ft. Worth (another indy team).

He got back into the draft in 2002 and was drafted by the Devil Rays in the 13th round.  At this time his fastball was gone and he never did anything in the indy leagues.  He again didn’t sign and at this point goes through a rotator cuff surgury and again entered the draft.  The Reds selected him in the 2003 draft in the 24th round, offered the minor league minimum and he declined.  In 2004 the Yankees drafted him in the 34th round, but never even offered him a contract due to injury concerns.

At this point he was overweight and his fastball topped out at 87 MPH.  He worked hard for 2 years re-inventing himself with a plus curve, and the Cubs ended up signing him in 2006.  Finally, Matt was on a major league team.  Unfortunately it would be short lived, as the Cubs would release him after Sprint Training camp.  He would play for the Saints one more year, then call it quits.  So what about Matt Harrington now?

Matt works for Costco, installing tires for $11.50 an hour.  Don’t feel bad though, his parents were smart and got an insurance policy on his arm from Lloyds of London just after he finished high school.  After his rotator cuff surgery, he applied to collect and finally did.  He also won a settlement from his former agent Tanzer for mismangement.  So he got his millions, even if it was done the hard way.  I wrote this post because if you asked any scout who was the best pitcher in the 2000 draft was they wouldn’t hesitate, it was Matt Harrington, some would even say he was the best high school pitcher they had ever seen at the time.  Here is my Campus Legends card for Matt.