The 5 best first overall MLB draft picks
The five best first overall picks in MLB history were all drafted out of high school, two of them by the same team six years apart.
The Minnesota Twins started off the 2017 MLB Amateur draft by picking Royce Lewis out of JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano, California. They no doubt hope to get a long, productive career from the young player, just as many teams with the number one overall pick have done before them. Recent number one overall picks include David Price (Tampa Bay, 2007), Stephen Strasburg (Washington, 2009), Bryce Harper (Washington, 2010), and Carlos Correa (Houston, 2012).
We’ve become so accustomed to the yearly MLB draft it’s easier to forget that many people were strongly opposed to it when it was created in 1965. Before the draft, amateurs were able to sign with any MLB team that offered them a contract. Teams in better financial shape were able to sign many top players and stash them on their minor league teams.
This created an inequity where teams like the Yankees and Cardinals loaded up on good prospects. The first attempt to counteract this was the bonus rule in 1947. This rule stated that any player who received a signing bonus of more than $4,000 would have to remain on the major league roster for two seasons before they could be sent to the minor leagues. This led to some very young players getting little playing time early in their careers. It hurt some players, while others still went on to Hall of Fame careers, like Sandy Koufax, Al Kaline, and Catfish Hunter.
The manipulation of the bonus baby rule and the increase in signing bonus amounts led to the MLB Amateur Draft in 1965. Owners claimed it was meant to distribute talent more fairly, but keeping down the rising cost of signing bonuses was a major factor also.
If you think about baseball players like you would other professions, say a doctor or teacher or lawyer, it makes the idea of a draft completely untenable. These are the best amateur baseball players in the country and they are forced by the MLB draft to sign with the team that drafts them. The best doctors, teachers, or lawyers in the country aren’t forced to sign with specific hospitals, schools, or law firms. It hardly seems fair to force the best amateur baseball talent in the country to play for the team with the worst record the year before. Fairness aside, this is how the draft works, to the benefit of MLB teams.
The first pick of the first June Amateur Draft in 1965 was Rick Monday by the Oakland Athletics. He would go on to play nearly 2000 games in the big leagues and be worth 33.1 WAR, per Baseball-Reference. That was a solid pick by the A’s. It wouldn’t be until 1977 that a number one overall pick would be chosen who would amass more career value than Monday (Harold Baines, White Sox, 1977).
As the 2017 MLB Amateur draft continues this week, let’s look back at the five best players chosen first overall in the draft going back to its beginnings in 1965. We’ll go in reverse order.