Major League Baseball's amateur draft dates back to 1965, and during that time the Philadelphia Phillies have selected hundreds and hundreds of players. You can frankly get lost digging through the annals of team draft history. And just like any club, they can't all be winners.
The goal of every pick is to fill an organizational need, or at the very least develop a player well enough so that they become a useful trade piece to help you get what you want from another club. To that end, notable Phillies draft picks like Kyle Drabek and Jason Knapp shouldn’t be included in a list of “worst” picks, because those players were then leveraged in trades that helped the team immensely.
Additionally, we won’t be digging deep down the list just to find guys who never made the majors at all (looking at you, 2010 fourth-round pick Bryan Morgado!), but rather focusing our energies almost exclusively on first round selections. This is where you need to build the foundation for your team, and it can set you back for years if you squander a top pick. With that in mind, here are the 15 worst draft picks in Phillies history:
15 worst draft picks in Philadelphia Phillies history
No. 15: Chad McConnell, 1992
The Phillies selected McConnell, an outfielder out of Creighton University and a 1992 Olympian, with the No. 12 pick that year. But he never made the major leagues, which is a pretty simple formula that will land you on this list. At least he hit 12 home runs in Reading in 1996, though. It's frankly kind of odd that the Phillies, as bad they were at that time, never just brought him up. McConnell later went back to school for criminal justice and became a parole officer. Good for him, I suppose.
No. 14: Brad Brink, 1986
With players like Matt Williams, Kevin Brown and Gary Sheffield already off the board, the Phillies went with college pitcher Brink at No. 8. Brink wouldn't reach the majors until 1992, and he pitched in 14 career MLB games. Enough said.
No. 13: Gavin Floyd, 2001
Floyd didn't have a terrible MLB career, as he was a five-time 10-game winner. But all of those seasons came with the White Sox after his Phillies tenure went nowhere, so we'll factor in his failure to live up to high expectations and give him a slot on the list. And we'll also get retroactively annoyed with him for being part of the trade that brought Freddy Garcia to town, which didn't work out at all.
No. 12: Greg Golson, 2004
Selected out of high school with the No. 21 pick, Golson was going to take a while to develop before he could help the Phillies. Once the day finally arrived in 2008, however, Golson received all of six plate appearances as a Phil before they traded him that offseason to Texas for one-game wonder John Mayberry Jr. Golson also played for the Yankees, and he finished his major league career as a .195 hitter with no home runs over 42 plate appearances.
No. 11: Carlton Loewer, 1994
People were thrilled at the prospect of another "Carlton" toeing the rubber for the Phillies, but it just didn't work. Loewer debuted in 1998 to very mixed results, got hurt in 1999, and then was traded to San Diego in the ill-fated Andy Ashby deal, which somehow makes this even worse. Loewer became just another one of the "failed aces" that the Phillies didn't get anything out of, and his Padres tenure saw him win as many games (1) as legs that he broke from falling out of hunting blinds.
No. 10: Wayne Gomes, 1993
1993 was a special year around these parts, but the Phils' top pick that year didn't come close to panning out. Wayne Gomes kicked around the league for a few years, but it's hard to justify the Phillies using a top pick on him. There have been worse careers, but getting a middling reliever with the fourth overall selection in a draft hurts. At least the Phillies had better success with their second rounder that year — Scott Rolen.
Happy 47th birthday to 1997-2001 @Phillies pitcher Wayne Gomes. Was #Phillies first round pick at fourth overall in 1993. Went 27-21 over parts of five seasons with the club in 288 games, all in relief: 29 Saves, 4.42 ERA, 1.520 WHIP, 332 hits over 331.2 IP with a 252/172 K:BB. pic.twitter.com/x7VOitsvnY
— PHILLIES BELL (@PhilliesBell) January 15, 2020
No. 9: Mike Martin, 1970
Teams really didn't know what they were doing when they picked guys decades ago, and Martin exemplifies that. The Phillies took him fifth overall in 1970, but you could be forgiven for not knowing that, as Martin never made the big leagues. The Phillies had a few other "early pick flameouts" in the 60s and 70s, but we'll limit it to just Martin instead of filling this list with too many guys you've literally never heard of.
No. 8: Joe Savery, 2007
The big lefty was viewed as a potential rotation fixture when he was chosen 19th overall in 2007, and his slow development went largely unnoticed while the Phils were putting together the best stretch in team history. Savery stalled, however, and he only ever appeared in 41 games (all in relief) between 2011 and 2013. The Phillies waived him the following spring, Oakland claimed him, he pitched in three games for them, and that was all for his MLB career.
No. 7: Anthony Hewitt, 2008
The Phillies took Hewitt, a promising high school shortstop, with the 24th pick in 2008. And as fondly as that year is remembered across Phillies Nation, Hewitt went on to become one of the most forgettable picks that the team has made in the 21st century. The Phillies tried for years to turn him into something, finally releasing him in 2014. He never came close to sniffing the major leagues.
No. 6: Adam Haseley, 2017
Many of us fell into the trap of thinking that Haseley was the "next big thing" after he was taken at the No. 8 slot. But it never clicked for him. Haseley debuted in 2019, and he looked decent. As with many young players, however, the pandemic robbed him of the development time that he needed, and he had a very underwhelming 2020 that set the stage for the rest of his Phillies' tenure. He was traded to the White Sox in March 2022, and he appeared in 42 games with them over two seasons. He remains out of the majors since then, and he won't be back.
No. 5: Cornelius Randolph, 2015
It's tempting to put Scott Kingery here, whom the Phillies took at No. 48 in 2015. But his shortcomings were a result of not living up to a contract, and I don't think you can call him an objectively bad pick. Ol' Corny Randolph never made the major leagues at all, however, so he has to get a spot here when you combine that fact with his status as the 10th overall pick of that year's draft.
No. 4: Jesse Biddle, 2010
Biddle seemed like a dream come true — a Philly kid and huge left-handed pitcher who seemed like he could be a rotation stalwart for the Phillies. The organization spent years developing him, but numerous injuries and mental health struggles prevented Biddle from ever appearing in a Phillies uniform. The Phils ultimately traded him in 2016, and he finally made his major league debut with the Braves in 2018. He ended up appearing in 99 games (all relief appearances) for four different MLB clubs.
No. 3: Jeff Jackson, 1989
Jackson was taken with the fourth pick in that year's draft and, like Martin, Hewitt and Randolph, he never made the majors. But the Jackson selection became even more of a "big hurt" in retrospect because he was taken three picks before a player you may have heard of — Frank Thomas. Ouch. Jackson is the highest pick in Phils history to have never made the majors.
No. 2: Mickey Moniak, 2016
The Phillies have had the first overall pick twice in team history. The first time was in 1998, when they took Pat Burrell. And say what you will about "Pat the Bat" but the man left town a champion, so nobody will ever complain. For poor Mickey, however, it just wasn't meant to be. The tipping point came in 2022, when Moniak suffered a wrist injury near the end of an excellent spring training that ended up ruining his season. He was traded to the Angels later that year, and he now toils in Colorado. That draft honestly stunk, and Moniak became the poster child for it.
With the first overall pick in the 2016 #MLBDraft, the Philadelphia Phillies select OF Mickey Moniak. pic.twitter.com/nTEBXPwiQR
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) June 9, 2016
No. 1: J.D. Drew, 1997
It's all about the wording. If we had called this list the "biggest draft busts," then J.D. Drew would be nowhere near it after putting up an objectively good career of nearly 1,500 hits and 250 home runs. But this is about "worst draft picks," and when you select a player with the second overall pick, can't sign him, and then see him go somewhere else a year later without getting any compensation, then it has to be the worst pick. The Phillies could have taken Troy Glaus, Vernon Wells or Lance Berkman, just to name a few hitters who also went in the first round after Drew. Getting nothing for him was crushing for an organization that desperately needed an infusion of talent, and it meant that their miserable 95-loss season in 1996 had been all for nothing.
Drew aptly became a punching bag for the Phillies' faithful over his entire career and even beyond, although I can't condone throwing batteries at anyone. At least, not officially. At any rate, the organization shoulders a lot of the blame for selecting a player that they couldn't sign, making this the worst draft pick that the Phillies have ever made. Let's hope that no recent or future picks show up on a list like this anytime soon.