The 2012 MLB Draft produced a few stars, but overall it just wasn’t a great draft class, and 10 years later that opinion has not changed. In redrafting the first round of that draft, there were 20 players who didn’t make the cut.
Some are real misses, while a few have had credible major-league careers that just weren’t up to the standard set by other players in the class.
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Kyle Zimmer, RHP
Drafted: No. 5 by Kansas City
0.0 WAR
What might have been. Zimmer was one of the best pitching prospects I’ve ever seen in person, but I also caught him at two rare moments of health. He missed essentially all of 2014 and 2016 with arm trouble, and more than half of 2015 and 2017. The Royals gave him many chances, and finally let him go after 2021. He’s in Triple A for the Reds and has walked 18 batters in 12.2 innings. It was really electric when it worked, though.
Albert Almora Jr., OF
Drafted: No. 6 by Chicago Cubs
2.8 WAR
The Cubs bet heavily on Almora’s makeup, but I wonder if he’d have gone this high in the draft if we’d had better exit velocity data back in 2012, as one of Almora’s biggest problems in pro ball was that he didn’t make enough hard contact. He also was never a very patient hitter, so all he really had to offer was some defensive value, leaving him little better than an extra outfielder.
Mark Appel, RHP
Drafted: No. 8 by Pittsburgh
Did not sign
The Pirates never talked to Appel before the draft, and negotiations didn’t go well after, especially with preseason expectations that Appel would be in the mix at No. 1 overall. The two sides were apparently never close. The Pirates took the compensatory pick in 2013, selecting Austin Meadows, while Appel returned to Stanford and did, in fact, go 1-1 in 2013 to the Astros, although he has yet to reach the majors.
David Dahl, OF
Drafted: No. 10 by Colorado
0.6 WAR
Dahl was a typical Rockies draft pick of the time, very toolsy and offering upside at a position up the middle, but his tenure there was marred by injuries, including a ruptured spleen, a broken foot, shoulder surgery and an ankle injury. I was shocked the Rockies simply non-tendered Dahl after 2020 over just a few million dollars, but he was awful for the Rangers in 2021, so the Rockies’ decision looks good in hindsight. He’s currently in Triple A for the Brewers, hitting .297/.386/.432, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see him return to the majors at some point.
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Addison Russell, SS
Drafted: No. 11 by Oakland
11.3 WAR
His on-field production would have merited inclusion in the redraft, but he’s now out of baseball — he was suspended for 40 games in 2018 under Major League Baseball’s joint domestic violence policy — which is a pretty clear sign that MLB teams wouldn’t be jumping to draft him today.
Gavin Cecchini, SS
Drafted: No. 12 by New York Mets
-0.5 WAR
Cecchini didn’t hit up to expectations, but the bigger issue was throwing problems that moved him off short and gave him trouble even at second. If he’d been a competent defender anywhere on the dirt, he would have had a chance at a career as an extra infielder.
Courtney Hawkins, OF
Drafted: No. 13 by Chicago White Sox
Did not reach majors
Hawkins was an extremely tooled-up high school outfielder from Corpus Christi, with a football body but very rough approach at the plate, so of course the White Sox sent him right to High A in his first full pro season. He hit .179/.249/.384 there with 160 strikeouts in 425 plate appearances (38 percent), and I don’t think he ever recovered from it. He needed a slow development track, not a fast one. He reached Triple A for just 16 games with the Reds and has been playing in independent ball for the last four seasons. Chicago’s second pick, Keon Barnum (No. 48 overall), also failed to reach the majors, topping out in Double A with outrageous strikeout rates, as well.
Nick Travieso, RHP
Drafted: No. 14 by Cincinnati
Did not reach majors
A high school right-hander out of Florida with big stuff and a rough delivery, Travieso underwent shoulder surgery in 2017 and threw just three innings afterward before the Reds released him.
Tyler Naquin, OF
Drafted: No. 15 by Cleveland
4.0 WAR
Naquin is still in the majors with the Reds and his defensive skills, including a plus-plus arm, should keep him around for a while, but he doesn’t offer anything on offense – his 19 homers last year were a product of the Reds’ homer-friendly park, not a new skill level.
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D.J. Davis, OF
Drafted: No. 17 by Toronto
Did not reach majors
A Mississippi high school outfielder with plus speed and a less-than-great swing, Davis never got out of A ball and failed to slug .400 or post a .350 on-base percentage anywhere he played.
Chris Stratton, RHP
Drafted: No. 20 by San Francisco
1.0 WAR
Stratton had a borderline-plus slider at Mississippi State and had a breakout junior year, but his stuff backed up almost immediately in pro ball and he couldn’t miss enough bats in the upper levels to be more than an emergency starter or a generic middle reliever, which is what he’s been for the Pirates for the last four years.
Lucas Sims, RHP
Drafted: No. 21 by Atlanta
0.9 WAR
Sims was the local kid, pitching at Brookwood High School in nearby Snellville, but only threw 67 innings for Atlanta before they traded him to Cincinnati with Matt Wisler and Preston Tucker for Adam Duvall. Sims has been a replacement-level reliever for the Reds ever since. He never had the command and control required to start even in the upper minors, at one point walking 92 batters in 141 innings in Triple A.
James Ramsey, OF
Drafted: No. 23 by St. Louis
Did not reach majors
Ramsey was the first player taken who wasn’t on my top 100 before the draft, a college senior at Florida State who could run but whose swing was tailor-made for the tin bats used in college. The rumor is that the Cardinals were about to take Marcus Stroman with this pick, but when the Jays took him one pick before their turn, the Cards panicked and ended up with Ramsey. He spent parts of six seasons in Triple A, mostly with Cleveland, but never got on base or hit for any power and has been out of baseball since 2018.
Deven Marrero, SS
Drafted: No. 24 by Boston
-0.2 WAR
I was too high on Marrero, thinking he would stay at shortstop and hit for average, but he did neither in pro ball. His disappointing junior season at Arizona State wasn’t a blip, but a sign that he’d peaked at age 19 or 20. By the time he was 24 what speed he’d had was largely gone, he wasn’t able to play shortstop, and he wasn’t hitting the ball with enough authority to profile anywhere else.
Richie Shaffer, 3B
Drafted: No. 25 by Tampa Bay
0.0 WAR
Shaffer hit .213/.310/.410 in 142 major-league plate appearances between 2015 and 2016, and that was the only chance he got, as the Rays traded him to Seattle after the latter season. Two lousy years in the high minors of Cleveland’s system later, he was done. He’s a Twitch streamer now.
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Stryker Trahan, C
Drafted: No. 26 by Arizona
Did not reach majors
A hard-hitting catcher from a Louisiana high school, Trahan never hit in pro ball and topped out in High A, hitting a composite .203/.266/.381 in full-season leagues. The D-Backs released him in March 2017 and he didn’t play again.
Clint Coulter, C/OF
Drafted: No. 27 by Milwaukee
Did not reach majors
The Brewers had two first-round picks in 2012, and neither played a single day in the majors. Coulter was a high school catcher who could hit but couldn’t catch, and he did have one tremendous year in the minors, hitting .287/.410/.520 in Low A in 2014, at age 20. That was it. He never hit anywhere near that at any other level, and he was a bad defender in an outfield corner, so that was that. He is actually still playing, for the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate, and is catching a little bit, but he’s just an org guy.
Victor Roache, OF
Drafted: No. 28 by Milwaukee
Did not reach majors
A massive overdraft, Roache was a power-over-hit player with a huge back-side collapse in his swing and no real defensive chops. He also broke his wrist and missed most of spring 2012, when his deficiencies might have been exposed when scouts were bearing down on him. He reached Triple A for just five games and was out of organized baseball after 2018.
Lewis Brinson, OF
Drafted: No. 29 by Texas
-3.4 WAR
He’s certainly had his chances – the Marlins gave Brinson more than 1,000 plate appearances, but he hit just .203/.248/.325 before they let him go after 2021. His story is a simple one: He couldn’t hit a breaking ball, and once pitchers figured that out, he couldn’t hit much else, either. Before he got to Houston’s Triple-A roster, he went from the Rangers to Milwaukee in the Jonathan Lucroy trade, then to the Marlins in the Christian Yelich trade.
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Ty Hensley, RHP
Drafted: No. 30 by New York Yankees
Did not reach majors
Hensley threw just 42.2 innings in the Yankees system, missing 2013 due to hip surgery, suffering severe injuries in a bar fight before 2015, and then undergoing two Tommy John surgeries. He pitched in independent ball for parts of three years but hasn’t pitched since 2020.
(Top photo of Zimmer: Rick Scuteri / USA Today Sports)
