As we head into the 2020 MLB Draft, Jason Keidel has profiled five of the biggest busts among New York Yankees first-round draft picks, with four of those made during the wildly-successful Brian Cashman era.
The Yankees, as Keidel noted, were indeed great at drafting and developing talent in the 1990s, but during the Cashman era, less than half of the team’s first-round picks have reached the majors – a percentage that goes up but still sits at barely half even if you take out the last five years – and two of those that did never made a single appearance in pinstripes (well, yet, because one is Gerrit Cole).
Sometimes, picks that don’t pan out can still have an impact – four of the Yankees’ last 10 first-round picks have been traded to help the MLB roster – but some don’t even get that flash in the pan. So, after profiling the team’s best picks by WAR, and then some of the biggest busts, how about a look at five of the biggest “wrong” picks in team history? In this case, we chronicle five first-rounders whose lack of a single MLB paycheck is magnified by the fact that they were taken ahead of some bona-fide superstars.
Getty Images With the final pick of the actual first round in 2012, the Yankees dreamed on Hensley, a big kid from Edmond, Okla., who had only been pitching full-time for two years but had the makings of a star and earned Gatorade Player of the Year honors in Oklahoma after a dominant senior year.
Sadly, the Yankees’ finding of a shoulder abnormality should’ve been a harbinger for the Yankees, and their dreams turned into a nightmare for the team and for Hensley, who missed all of 2013 after surgery on both hips and then missed both 2015 and 2016 after a pair of Tommy John surgeries. He hasn’t pitched in affiliated ball since 2014 (and has just 42 2/3 career innings as is), and spent the last two seasons kicking around various independent leagues.
Meanwhile, 19 of the 30 supplemental first-rounders taken after Hensley have made the Majors, including Berrios, who has a 7.2 career WAR and two post-season appearances with Minnesota (both against the Yankees). Others taken in that round include Mitch Haniger (No. 38), Lance McCullers Jr. (No. 41), and Matt Olson (No. 47).
Getty Images Bichette Jr. was a prep stud at Orangewood Christian School outside Orlando, and with his parental pedigree, his connection to the team (Dante Sr. was great friends and teammates with then-Yankees skipper Joe Girardi) and a strong performance in the Gulf Coast League as a neophyte, he was looked at as a potential successor to Alex Rodriguez at the hot corner in the Bronx.
Instead, he never even made it to Triple-A, spending two-plus seasons at Double-A Trenton (and changing positions) before the Yankees let him go as a minor-league free agent after the 2017 season. Little Dante then spent 2018 and part of 2019 in independent leagues before being signed by the Nationals, who deployed him at Double-A and then re-signed him this past offseason.
As for what could’ve been, well, the Rays selected 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner Snell with the very next pick, and two of the eight players selected after Snell in the supplemental round have also made the majors (outfielder Dwight Smith Jr. and utility man Jace Peterson, also a former Yankee). To make it worse, 17 of the 27 players taken in the second round ahead of the Yankees’ pick – LHP Sam Stafford, who didn’t sign – have reached MLB, and Dante’s own brother, Bo, was selected No. 66 overall in 2016 and hit .311 in 46 games as a rookie with the Blue Jays last season.
Getty Images The third of five straight top picks the Yankees used on prep players (spoiler: none worked out), Culver was a pitcher and shortstop who grew up idolizing Derek Jeter in Rochester, N.Y., but unfortunately, his career more closely resembled that of Shawn Jeter (look him up, kids!).
Culver simply never hit, ended up as an organizational utility guy, and was gone after eight seasons without even the cup of coffee that Shawn Jeter actually got (again, look him up, kids!). Cito spent 2018 in the Marlins system and 2019 kicking around independent ball, where he’s still plying his trade.
Meanwhile, another high-schooler who goes by the nickname “Thor” was taken six picks later, and others among the 18 supplemental first-rounders selected after Culver include Aaron Sanchez (No. 34) and Nicholas Castellanos (No. 44).
2004: Jon Poterson (No. 37 overall)Could’ve been: Gio Gonzalez (No. 38) or Huston Street (No. 40)The Yankees lost their actual pick (No. 28 overall) as "punishment” for signing Paul Quantrill, and they watched the Dodgers select Blake DeWitt, an infielder who had a couple of decent seasons with the Dodgers and Cubs. They did get two later comp picks, though, for losing Andy Pettitte and David Wells, and used the first on Poterson, a high school catcher whose most noticeable trait is that his name looks like a typo.
Alas, we never got to see Joe Girardi call him “Potey,” as Jon spent three subpar seasons in the low minors and three more in the independent leagues before moving on from baseball shortly after the Yankees won their 27th World Series title. You know who could’ve been there? Gonzalez, who had 132 2/3 MLB innings under his belt when Poterson hung up the spikes, or Street, who had 129 career saves by the end of 2009. The kicker? Both were selected by Oakland. And even weirder? The guy the Twins selected between them, RHP Jay Rainville, also was out of baseball after 2009, just like Poterson.
Getty Images You may notice we’ve skipped over Eric Duncan and C.J. Henry here, and really, that’s because they’ve already been profiled as busts – Cito Culver was only included to show how a New York-based superstar could’ve been in the Big Apple a lot earlier.
But those skips bring us to 2000, where the Yankees curiously took a college catcher (remember, Jorge Posada was in his fourth full season at this point) in Dave Parrish. The Yankees obviously liked Parrish, as he had been their 10th-round pick as a high schooler in 1997…and it’s a good thing the Pirates liked him too, as that’s the organization Parrish wound up in when the Yankees released him in 2006 after he never really did much of anything.
After his release, Parrish spent 2006-08 in the Pirates, Rockies, and Padres organizations with a stint in indy ball, and he was out of baseball when the Yankees won it all in 2009. You know who wasn’t? “Waino,” who has his own infamous moment in New York baseball history and is still going strong in St. Louis now 15 years after his MLB debut.