The Philadelphia Phillies designated Mark Appel yesterday. Is this the end of the line for the former #1 overall draft pick?
The sad saga of Mark Appel may well be at an end. The Phillies cast aside the former top prospect to clear room on the 40-man roster in advance of the Rule V draft. While he may still latch on with another organization, this surely isn’t the direction his career was supposed to go.
The Phillies acquired Appel from the Houston Astros in December 2015 as the major piece in the Ken Giles trade. Prior to that, he was the highly heralded #1 overall pick in the 2013 draft out of Stanford.
In fact, he was the eighth overall pick by the Pirates in 2012. Houston also had the top pick that year and was criticized for bypassing him in favor of Carlos Correa.
Puerto Rican SS Carlos Correa is the #1 pick of the 2012 MLB Draft, a big shock, many has speculated Stanford SP Mark Appel going #1
— Isaac (Birthday 9/10) (@isaacfromFL) June 4, 2012
AAA batters hit Appel hard over parts of three seasons. He has a 4.82 ERA and 1.585 WHIP at the highest level of the minors. Unless his career takes an unexpectedly positive turn, he’ll join a notorious club of top overall picks who never reached the major leagues. The following are the other members of this club.