Adrian Siravo is sure he would be a professional baseball player right now if not for the pandemic.
Widely considered one of New England's top high school prospects last spring, Siravo (Gilmanton, N.H.) planned to forego his scholarship offer at UConn to fulfill his dream of becoming a professional baseball player. The pandemic changed the economic outlook of baseball at the major league and minor league levels, which resulted in the 2020 MLB Draft getting shortened to five rounds. As a result, no high school player from New England was selected in the draft.
"The pandemic messed it all up for me," Siravo said. "I felt that I was a draft prospect. I felt that I would have been drafted in a 10-round draft. That wasn't the case."
Siravo's options for the 2020-21 school year became limited after the draft. He could go to UConn with a minimum commitment of three seasons before he was again draft-eligible, sign as an undrafted free agent for a maximum of $20,000, or bide his time at the junior college level. He chose to go the JuCo route at Weatherford College (Texas), keeping his draft options open for the 2021 MLB Draft.