Piggybacking on TPM a bit, a college friend of my son took a gap year at a boarding school out of HS. I do not know the reasons for the gap year, but he landed at a top academic D1 to play baseball. He got all sorts of awards during his college career and he was disappointed that he didn't get drafted after his junior year. With more awards and good stats his senior year, he gets drafted. But, now he is 2 years older than than the college juniors that were drafted and MANY years older than the foreign players and high schoolers that were drafted. He saw the writing on the wall and played only one summer. (But he did fulfill his dream to play pro ball).
I am realizing that being older in the lower levels of pro ball is not particularly a good thing.