Stewart is in agreement on a six-year contract worth more than $7 million with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Japan's Pacific League, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN. Stewart was the No. 8 overall pick in last year's MLB draft but didn't sign after the Atlanta Braves, who believed he was injured, offered him a signing bonus well under the $4.98 million slot value of the pick — around $2 million. Stewart went to junior college instead and was expected to go early in the second round of this year's draft — and receive an offer of less than $2 million.

Stewart's decision makes easy sense financially. Say he stayed in the United States and signed for $2 million. Best case, Stewart would have started with a team's short-season Class A affiliate. In 2020, he would top out at Double-A and make less than $10,000 for the season. And if Stewart is that good, and moving that quickly, his team likely would keep him at scant wages in the minor leagues for all of 2021, too, and promote him around this time in 2022 to ensure it controls him for 6¾ years before free agency. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, Stewart would make the major league minimum — which, being generous and assuming the new collective bargaining agreement gives it a big bump, could be $750,000.

In a near-optimal scenario, Stewart would receive around $4 million for the next six years — and would not reach free agency until after the 2027 season, when he will be 28. His deal with the Hawks would guarantee Stewart $3 million more and potentially allow him to hit free agency three years earlier.

Basically, instead of accepting whatever a team would offer him in the draft this year, Stewart is accepting a larger payment from a Japanese team. This will allow him to hit FA as a 25-year-old instead of likely as a 28-year-old, while also making more money in the process.

A lot of things could go wrong, but if this is successful, it will be interesting to see how MLB responds with possible changes to the draft. Guess we'll wait and see.