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Jonathan Mayo - MLB.com
Today is a momentous day in MLB.com history, folks. It marks my 27th anniversary as a member of this illustrious staff.
Back when I started, I was a writing staff of one, something that really started changing in 2001 when we brought in all of the team sites and had reporters for all the big league clubs. One thing that’s been constant throughout all the years is how big the MLB Draft is for the site. Back when I started, I’ll admit to not having known much about it since it didn’t get that much coverage in the mainstream media. But in my first year in 1999, I quickly learned that we set traffic records annually during the Draft, and it was just a stream of the conference call of all 50 rounds of the event.
Our Draft coverage has obviously evolved over time, from doing live video online for the first time early at the turn of the century to it being on TV, first on ESPN in 2007, then jumping to MLB Network in 2009. It’s been fun watching the popularity of our Draft grow, and I take great pride in the small contribution I’ve made to that growth.
With my start in 1999, that means I’ve now covered 27 Drafts, writing and talking about a ton of future stars. It got me to thinking about all the No. 1 picks over this quarter-century and change and how I’d rank them. Below is my top 12. It’s not based entirely on career bWAR, though I list that; I do some projecting and have moved guys around a little because of personal connection. And I asked my partners-in-prospects Jim Callis and Sam Dykstra to weigh in and took their rankings into consideration.
With each player, I’ve listed them with the team that drafted them ...
1. Joe Mauer, C, Twins (2001), 55.6 bWAR: He currently leads in WAR, but not for too much longer, and he's the lone Hall of Famer to date during my tenure. He also was our first-ever No. 1 prospect when we began ranking them back in 2004.
2. Bryce Harper, OF, Nationals (2010), 54.0: He’s going to overtake Mauer in WAR and will likely join him in Cooperstown one day. It might be impossible to live up to the hype of a guy who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated at such a young age, but a pair of MVPs, a Rookie of the Year Award, eight All-Star appearances and four Silver Sluggers make up a pretty darn good resume.
3. Gerrit Cole, RHP, Pirates (2011), 43.1: I’m curious to see what he can add to his already amazing career with this comeback after missing the 2025 season. He has a Cy Young Award, a pair of ERA titles and six All-Star nods to his credit, and he's the best pitcher to be taken No. 1 overall since I started, at least for the time being …
4. Paul Skenes, RHP, Pirates (2023), 14.0: I couldn’t decide how bullish to go with this projection because a big part of me thinks he should go higher. He already has a ROY Award and a Cy Young Award to go along with back-to-back All-Star appearances. I’m holding back just a little because you never know with pitching, but if you told me he belongs at the top of this list, I wouldn’t argue.
5. Carlos Correa, SS, Astros (2012), 46.5: This one’s fun because Correa was the first player we had on site to go No. 1 overall (Correa and Henry Davis are the two top overall picks to be at the Draft in person). He’s also had one heckuva career, with a ROY award, a World Series ring and three All-Star appearances.
6. David Price, LHP, Rays (2007), 40.2: Price was a Vanderbilt star and the first No. 1 pick to be announced on a live TV broadcast of the MLB Draft; I had a blast communicating with him for a first-person journal he did for us leading up to it. He then went on to have a terrific 14-year career that included a Cy Young Award, two ERA titles, a 2018 World Series ring and five All-Star selections.
7. Josh Hamilton, OF, Rays (1999), 28.1: You always remember the first, right? I was only a couple of months into my career here when this one happened, with the Rays opting for Hamilton’s tools as a hitter over Josh Beckett’s upside as a pitcher.
8. Adrián González, 1B, Marlins (2000), 43.6: I always feel like González is the sleeper success story as a No. 1 pick. Maybe because it took him a little bit longer to establish himself? But he went on to make five All-Star teams and win four Silver Sluggers and Gold Gloves -- quite the combination.
9. Stephen Strasburg, RHP, Nationals (2009), 32.3: I had the chance to go out to San Diego State and spend some time with Strasburg right before he tossed a no-hitter in his last regular season college start. Fun aside: I sat in a class with him because one of his favorite professors there was my uncle, Robert Stock (not related to the pro pitcher). Injuries cut short an otherwise outstanding career with the Nationals.
10. Justin Upton, OF, D-backs (2005), 32.2: That 2005 Draft is still probably the best I’ve covered. As solid as Upton was in a career that included four All-Star nods and three Silver Sluggers, he actually is 8th among the class in career WAR.
11. Dansby Swanson, SS, D-backs (2015), 29.1: Swanson famously spent just one summer in the D-backs' organization after signing before he was traded to the Braves in December of that year. He won a World Series with Atlanta in 2021 and has been a very steady and consistent big league shortstop for over a decade, with a pair of Gold Gloves and All-Star selections.
12. Adley Rutschman, C, Orioles (2019), 15.3: This started out so well, with 9.7 WAR accrued over his first two seasons as he finished as the Rookie of the Year Award runner-up in 2022, then was named to the All-Star team in the next two seasons. I’m still holding out hope he can get headed back in the right direction offensively and maybe move up this list.
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Wokewashed
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