Brady Aiken

The only offer Houston could make to Nix without incurring heavy penalties, such as a steep luxury tax or the loss of draft picks, for going over their bonus pool allotment was a severely reduced $616,165.

[13] The third player involved in the Aiken fallout was Mac Marshall, the 21st-round pick of the Astros, a high school pitcher from Georgia.

Marshall was one of the top prospects in the draft who only fell as far as he did because of his monetary demands and the difficulty MLB teams perceived in signing him.

On August 27, it was reported that the Astros could still sign Aiken, as the other 29 MLB teams agreed to allow the use of a clause in the draft which negated the deadline.

On March 26, Aiken announced that he underwent Tommy John surgery after being told he had torn the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow, which was the very ligament Houston was so concerned with that it caused the organization to withdraw their initial offer after drafting him in the 2014 MLB Draft.

[17] As a result of not signing Aiken, the Astros were awarded the second overall pick for the 2015 draft which they used to select Alex Bregman.

[20] Aiken made his professional debut with the Arizona League Indians in June 2016,[21] and he was later promoted to the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.

[22] He spent the 2017 season with the Lake County Captains of the Single–A Midwest League,[23] where he posted a 5–13 record with a 4.77 ERA in 27 games.

[26][27] Aiken spent the entire 2021 season on the injured list of the High-A Lake County Captains.