America East Baseball: Three Members Sign Free Agent Deals

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The good news about playing college baseball in America East is that you will get notified if it’s earned. While it is true that no players were taken in the twenty rounds of the MLB draft held in Los Angeles, CA., there was some movement after the process ended. Three members of the league were contacted by big league organizations and signed to minor league deals. Sure, these players did not get the big signing bonus of those that were drafted, but their dream of playing major league baseball still lives on. Let’s see who received the phone call once the draft was over.

Brad Malm spent five years playing college baseball at Albany University. His fifth year with the program may have been his best. He started all 47 games at shortstop for the Great Danes. By doing so, he put together a season that got noticed by the New York Mets who signed him to a free agent contract. Malm led the league during the regular season in home runs with 15. Eight of those bombs came in the team’s first seven games. He added 131 total bases and a slugging percentage of .655, He hit .340 for the season. Brad also finished in the top 5 in OPS (1.058), at-bats (200), runs scored (53), hits (68), and RBI (49). Malm was named League Player of the Week twice and finished second-team All-Conference in America East. It was the third straight year he was named to the postseason conference team having been named to the first team in 2021 and second team in 2019.

The Miami Marlins signed two players from America East. First, they inked a deal with Maine Black Bear RHP Matt Pushard. Matt’s final year with the Black Bears saw him lead the league in saves with nine over 30 innings of work while posting a 3-1 record. His strikeout to walk ratio was 44 punchouts to 18 bases on balls. His ERA was high at 6.00. Pushard’s best outing came on April 9th vs NJIT when he went four innings and struck out eight where he would get the win in a 13-8 victory by Maine.

Bryant College RHP, Collin Lowe, was also signed by the Marlins. After spending four seasons at Richmond, Lowe came to Bryant for a grad year. He became a member of the Bulldogs’ starting rotation throwing 80.2 innings with a 5-4 record and a 2.79 ERA. His one year at Bryant would earn him All-Northeast Conference first team, All-New England, and All-ECAC selection. His walks to strikeout ratio was very good at 16 free passes to 79 punchouts. He allowed two runs or less in eight of his 14 starts. Before signing with Miami, Lowe was pitching summer ball with the Newport Gulls of the New England Collegiate Baseball League. In 28 innings Collin was 1-1 with a 2.25 ERA with 39 strikeouts.