MLB Draft: 4 first overall picks to never make it to ‘The Show’

With such an advancement in teams’ abilities to assess and develop talent, first-pick busts in the MLB draft are becoming more of an outlier these days; however, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

For 54 years now, MLB teams have depended on an amateur MLB draft for cheap and long-lasting talent, and the event has taken many different forms since 1965; but the objective is still the same — select and sign the best players possible.

However, ever since outfielder Rick Monday was chosen first overall by the Kansas City Athletics during that first 1965 MLB draft — a player who went on to tally 33.1 WAR in a solid big league career — there have been numerous players that failed to live up to the hype.

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Of course, attempting to construct a list of the biggest MLB Draft busts would be quite the task, given we’re talking half a century of players to consider. Although, the exercise becomes much more attainable when narrowing the pool down to solely top picks (no. 1 overall selections), and even more so when looking to find no. 1 picks to never even reach the majors.

I’ll give you a hint… there are only four such players.

Sure, hitters like Matt Bush and Danny Goodwin (the latter chosen as the number 1 overall in back-to-back drafts), or pitchers like David Clyde and Bryan Bullington were all former number 1 picks that failed to deliver in the bigs. But at least those guys made it to The Show.

• Bush managed to accrue 2.6 WAR over parts of three seasons, last pitching for the Rangers as a 32-year-old reliever in 2018. He was drafted as a shortstop first-overall by the Padres in 2004, but San Diego decided he was a better fit on the mound. Wrong.  Bush would go on to miss two seasons after tearing a ligament in his elbow, got released in 2009, and then continued his downward spiral by assaulting two high schoolers in a drunken rage (he was also arrested in 2012, earning a DUI and hit-and-run charge while attempting a comeback with the Rays).
• Goodwin, despite only totaling -1.7 WAR over seven major league seasons, holds the famous title as the first and only player to ever go first-overall in two separate drafts. And it was for good reason too, given the former Southern University slugger earned himself a College Baseball Hall of Fame induction for his collegiate performance. However, that success in college never showed up in the pros, and Goodwin ended his career as a .236 hitter, playing for the California Angels (the team the drafted him), Minnesota Twins and Oakland Athletics.
• Clyde was compared to Sandy Koufax entering the 1973 MLB Draft (yikes!), resulting in the Texas Rangers pouncing on the high school lefty. The Rangers’ eagerness to bring the Koufax out of Clyde wound up ruining the kid, as he was immediately brought up to the majors as an 18-year-old. As you can guess… it didn’t go too well (5.01 ERA / 18 starts), and the next four seasons of Clyde’s career didn’t either. He walked away from baseball at the age of 26, due to numerous arm ailments, managing a whopping 0.6 WAR overall with the Rangers and Cleveland Indians.
• Bullington was the first Mid-American Conference player to go number one overall in a major sports draft, as the Pittsburgh Pirates chose the righty in the 2002 MLB Draft over Zack Greinke, Prince Fielder and Cole Hamels (among many other future stars). But evidently there’s a reason no one from the MAC ever goes at the top of the draft, because Bullington never developed into anything, spending his first four seasons in the minors before bouncing around four different organizations in five big league seasons. Overall, the Ball State product was worth -0.2 WAR, thanks to a career 5.62 ERA in the majors.

I mean, these guys had some bad careers… but they actually made it. Every player ever drafted just hopes to one day make it to the majors, and though it’s much better to have experienced a long and successful big league career, the players listed above can at least hang their hat on the fact that there’s a crooked number in the WAR column on their Baseball-Reference page (even if it may be a negative one).

But the following no. 1 picks in the list… didn’t make it. Whether it was from an injury on the field, in a fight, or some freak accident… these four players never got that magical call to the big leagues. Though if there’s any consolation, since 1965 these are also the only four players to be chosen no. 1 in the draft, but never log any time in the majors.

That’s not nothing!