Missed Opportunity Comes with a Big Silver Lining

Extra year led SDSU right hander to a major league contract and bachelor’s degree

Melton delivers a pitch during a recent outing (photo credit: Derrick Tuskan/SDSU Athletics)

By Suzanne Finch

In 2021, Troy Melton (’22, marketing) thought he might have to leave San Diego State University to jump at a once-in-lifetime opportunity. 

Melton, a right-handed pitcher for the Aztecs, was MLB draft eligible as a junior last year and was hoping he’d get that once-in-a-lifetime call with an offer that would lead to a signing bonus and a multi-million-dollar rookie contract. 

The call never came. 

Dream Delayed
But it wasn’t the end of Melton’s big league dreams. He went back to SDSU to work on his game and to continue pursuing his undergraduate degree. His return to the Aztecs resulted in improved stats (a 2.07 ERA and 5-2 record vs. a 6.14 ERA and 4 – 5 record for 2021), and increased his chances for snagging a better contract for the 2022 MLB draft. 

Melton also got something else by sitting out the draft for one year: He earned his marketing degree from SDSU’s Fowler College of Business in May 2022. Two months later, on July 18, Melton got the call he was waiting for from the Detroit Tigers letting him know that he’d been selected as a fourth-round draft pick. He headed off to the teams’ training facility in Lakeland, Florida the very next day. 

Although the extra year back at SDSU allowed him to complete his degree, Melton said that he still planned to earn his B.S. even if he had to skip his senior year in 2021. “MLB has a really good program that pays for the remainder of your schooling if you are drafted before you can finish your degree,” said Melton, the only Aztec selected in this year’s draft. “Had I left last year, it certainly would have taken me longer because of the schedule conflicts, but I would have found a way to get my degree from San Diego State. That was important to me.”

Troy Melton

Marketing Degree was a Good Fit
Melton chose to earn a marketing degree from SDSU “partially because SDSU has a good business department and partially because it’s a versatile degree to have,” he said. “Plus, marketing was the business program that fit my personality and interests the best.” 

Though Melton won’t be entering his chosen field of marketing right away, he noted many of the skills he learned in the classroom transition on to the baseball field as well. “Time management, hard work, focus, and a devotion to doing things the right way at all times easily translates onto the field,” said Melton, a two-time member of the Mountain West All-Academic Team. “I’ve always been a big believer in taking care of all the details in my life, so getting things done in the classroom was a big priority for me.” 

Planning for the Future
While he is hoping for a long and successful career as a professional athlete, Melton knows that those days will eventually come to an end while he is a relatively young man. But with his marketing degree in hand, he will be ready for that inevitable conclusion. “I am proud to have earned my degree before I was signed by the Tigers,” said Melton. “It’s something I can say that I’ve earned and I will be ahead of a lot of my baseball peers once our playing careers are over. It really symbolizes a lot of the hard work and time I’ve devoted to academics. And no one can take that away from me.”