TCU Horned Frog Kyle Winkler Needs to Take the Money and Run

After a very successful draft for the TCU Horned Frogs, TCU junior Kyle Winkler is expected to leave TCU early and sign with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

For his success, Winkler should accept the contract and move on to his dreams of playing in the pros.

With exception of a College World Series title, Winkler has done everything that a pitcher in college could do. This last season, even with injuries that hampered him through the season, he went 8-2 with a 1.39 ERA in 90 2/3 innings. In his collegiate career, he had 27 wins and was a cornerstone in a solid TCU rotation.

Until his shoulder began to bother him, Winkler was considered a top 25 player in college baseball who would go high in the draft. Despite some injury concerns in the latter part of the season, Winkler still showed himself to be a capable pitcher with valuable skill.

The Diamondbacks liked what they saw and chose him with their 10th round pick. As Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweeted, Winkler is expected to get a much higher contract than an average 10th round pick.

If this is so, Winkler needs to accept the contract and begin his major league career.

In all honesty, there is little to nothing that Winkler can do to add to his collegiate resume, but there is too much risk for him to try to play another year in college. Winkler has already struggled with injury throughout the past year and shouldn’t risk hurting himself to a point of hurting future draft stock.

His injuries are what cost him a higher draft position in this year’s draft. As Stevenson writes in his article,

"With TCU facing elimination, Winkler told coaches he was fine to pitch five or six innings Sunday, hoping to extend the Frogs’ season, even though the draft was the next day.Winkler felt some pain while retiring the first two batters and TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle and trainer Danny Wheat both recognized atypical body language and rushed to the mound. Winkler insisted he was OK, but two pitches later he felt something pop."

We wrote earlier this year about how Winkler was expected to go anywhere from the first to fourth round in the MLB draft. He continued to pitch well during the season when healthy, but his injury became the only reason that he fell from a first-round pick to a tenth.

While Winkler is more than likely to recover from his injury, there’s always a possibility of re-aggravating it. If another injury, a devastating one, were to happen in his senior year, it would be disastrous. Not only could it hurt his draft value, it could hurt his chances of landing a larger contract in the pros.

If this kind of injury were to happen during the season in the pros, he at least will have a contract already signed, will have money in the bank and will be mid-stride in reaching his dreams. All in all, when his previous successes in college are combined with a possible injury, there’s no real reason for Winkler to stay in Fort Worth.

The TCU nation will surely miss the righty ace, but when it comes to Winkler’s own good, he should thank Coach Schlossnagle for his time and begin his own professional career. He’s done great things for the program and will do great things in his own career.

For Kyle Winkler, he should take the money and run.

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