Draft Spotlight: John Olerud

John Olerud

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John Olerud did a lot of amazing things on the baseball diamond as a sophomore in 1988 at Washington State. As the team’s first baseman and part-time DH, he hit .464 with 23 homers; as the No. 1 starter in the Cougars rotation, he went 15-0, 2.49.

But Olerud’s most-amazing accomplishment in his three-year collegiate career may have occurred a year later, as a junior, on April 15 when he made his season debut—three months after collapsing during a pre-season workout, and two months after undergoing high-risk surgery to repair a near-fatal aneurysm at the base of his brain.

Olerud was projected as the second-best prospect in the college crop for the 1989 draft before being felled by his injury, and undoubtedly would still have been one of the handful of top players selected in June had he not voluntarily taken himself out of the draft with an announcement he made on May 14 that he intended to return to WSU for his senior year.

“I decided it would be best for me to stay here another year,” said Olerud, who hit .359 with five homers and 30 RBIs in 78 at-bats in his abbreviated junior season, while going just 3-2, 6.68 in his dual role on the mound. “If I hadn’t had the aneurysm and I would have had a good year, I would have turned pro most definitely. But I really need another year to get my strength back.

“Washington State is a place where I feel comfortable, where I won’t have to worry about somebody using me the wrong way. There probably isn’t enough first-round draft money out there to set me up for life.”

Every major-league club heeded Olerud’s request by not drafting him in the first round, but the Toronto Blue Jays made a calculated and preemptive strike in the third—even as they had little or no intention of trying to sign him in the short term.

“We would like him to get to 100 percent,” said Blue Jays general manager Pat Gillick. “We hope over the next few weeks he not only feels 100 percent, but he feels 100 percent about himself. I don’t think he feels completely up to par. I think when he’s healthy, he might be more acceptable to talking (contract).”

Olerud spent the summer playing for the local Palouse Empire Cougars of the far-flung Alaska League, and starred in his customary two-way role. Gillick, meanwhile, met with the Olerud family seven times over the course of the summer, not to exert pressure to sign but to monitor John’s progress. Other members of the Jays organization kept close tabs on him, as well.

Satisfied with his health and duly impressed by his summer-league performance, Toronto made its first firm offer in early August. The proposal, about $400,000, would have been the highest bonus in baseball history, if accepted. Olerud declined, but the Blue Jays persisted and at one point asked him what it would take; he responded that his stance had not changed, that he really wanted to return to school for his senior year.

On Aug. 19, Ben McDonald, the first overall pick in the 1989 draft, signed with Baltimore for an unprecedented $824,300, including a three-year, guaranteed major-league contract, plus incentives. A week later, almost six months to the day after the aneurysm was removed, Olerud agreed to a similar pact with Toronto, though the amount earmarked as a signing bonus in his deal, $575,000, made it the richest bonus contract in draft history.

The Oleruds said the money didn’t make the deal, though the lifetime security certainly didn’t hurt. They placed more importance on signing with an organization they knew and trusted, and on the opportunity for John to play immediately in the big leagues. In the process, he became just the 16th player in draft history to skip the minor leagues and advance directly to the majors.

His first big-league at-bat came against Minnesota on Sept. 3. Though admittedly nervous, the sweet-swinging Olerud grounded a 2-0 fastball by the second baseman for a single. By 1993, Olerud became an instrumental part of the World Series champion Blue Jays lineup, hitting an American League-best .363 while also leading the league with 54 doubles, 33 intentional walks and a .473 on-base percentage. He went on to play 17 seasons in the majors.