6 Teams That Regretfully Passed on Clayton Kershaw in 2006 MLB Draft
By Tim Boyle
3. Tampa Bay Rays
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
One team who can argue they didn’t miss out too badly on Kershaw is the Rays. They selected third baseman Evan Longoria third overall with their first round pick and should have few regrets.
Although Longoria isn’t at the same level of dominance as Kershaw is, he became a franchise player they were able to build around. Longoria was also pivotal in getting the Rays to the World Series in 2008 during his rookie season, winning AL ROY that same year.
Since drafting Kershaw, the Dodgers haven’t made it beyond the NLCS. The most interesting thing with Kershaw on the Rays would have been potentially pitching in the same rotation as David Price. However, Price was selected first overall in the draft after Kershaw, so the Rays obviously had a much bigger need to develop a position player in 2006 with pitchers like James Shields and Scott Kazmir already contributing at the major league level that year.