On September 19, 2016, a St. Louis Cardinals minor league pitcher filed suit, claiming that due to an error made by a Houston hospital, his draft stock suffered. The pitcher, Pablo Salazar III, originally had been projected as a third-to-eighth round draft pick in 2015; however, he was not actually drafted until the eleventh, a drop that he attributes to the hospital’s error.
Three years prior to the 2015 draft, he had an arthroscopic procedure done on his elbow. Salazar’s claim is that the radiological technician incorrectly labeled the images of his right elbow as his right hip. According to the petition, Texas Orthopedic Hospital has admitted that this was an error by the technician, and while problems with a pitcher’s elbow are common, hip issues can be very serious to the point where they prevent a person from ever playing the sport again.
Since he was drafted in the eleventh round, the signing bonus assigned was $100,000, an amount that Salazar was able to negotiate up to $200,000. While the bonus assigned to an eighth round selection was $177,000, Salazar claims that he could have negotiated for even more, and that this will adversely affect the amount of money he could make in the future.