Phillies: History of picking 14th overall in the MLB Draft

The Phillies history of drafting 14th overall isn’t fantastic, but fans shouldn’t fret.

For the first time since 2013 the Phillies are drafting outside of the top 10 thanks to a productive first season under manager Gabe Kapler. Owning the 14th pick in the MLB Draft for just the third time in the franchise’s history, Philadelphia has an opportunity to add another piece to their organization’s foundation.

This year will be the first time Philadelphia has picked 14th since 1995 and just the third time since 1967. In that limited history there hasn’t been much success for those picks.

In 1967 Philadelphia selected left-handed pitcher Phil Meyer from Pius X High School in Downey, California. Meyer spent six seasons in the Phils organization but never played in the big leagues, last playing for the Eugene Emeralds, their Triple-A affiliate in 1971.

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In six seasons with the Phillies organization Meyers had a 4.31 ERA in 80 games with nearly 300 strikeouts. His best season came in 1968 with the Spartanburg Phillies where he had a 2.80 ERA in nine starts.

Meyer finished his career in the Texas Rangers playing for their Single-A affiliate the
Burlington Rangers.

Philadelphia’s second pick at 14th overall was Reggie Taylor, an outfielder out of Newberry High School out of Newberry, South Carolina. He played 741 games in the minor leagues for Philadelphia and had two opportunities with the big league team in 2000 and 2001 with 14 combined big league games.

With a .056 batting average in his 14 big league games, Taylor was traded to Cincinnati for a player to be named later in 2002. In return, Cincinnati sent Hector Mercado, a pitcher who would make 44 appearances for Philadelphia,

Taylor would play in the majors, minors, Mexican, and Independent leagues through the 2010 season, but the former first round pick only appeared in 260 big league games compared to nearly 1,600 minor, foreign, and independent league games.

Fans shouldn’t read too much into their history of drafting 14th overall. Other teams have been very lucky with players such as Jose Fernandez, Derrek Lee, Jason Varitek, Jason Heyward, Billy Butler, Tino Martinez, and Cris Carpenter finding tremendous big league success.