List of first overall Major League Baseball draft picks

The First-Year Player Draft, also known as the Rule 4 Draft, is Major League Baseball's (MLB) primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. Unlike most professional sports, MLB does not permit the trading of draft picks,^[1] so the draft order is solely determined by the previous season's standings; the team that possesses the worst record receives the first pick.^[2] If two teams have identical records, the team with the worse record in the previous season will receive the higher pick.^[2] In addition, teams that lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded "compensatory" picks.^[2] The first draft took place in 1965; it was introduced to prevent richer teams from negotiating wealthier contracts with top-level prospects and therefore, monopolizing the player market.^[3] Originally, three drafts were held each year. The first draft took place in June and involved high-school graduates and college seniors who had just finished their seasons. The second draft took place in January for high school and college players who had graduated in December. The third draft took place in August and was for players who participated in American amateur summer leagues.^[4] The August draft was eliminated after two years, and the January draft lasted until 1986.^[5]

In 1965, Rick Monday became MLB's first draft pick after being selected by the Kansas City Athletics. Gerrit Cole is the most recent first overall draft pick after being selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011. Overall, 18 of the 45 picks have participated in the All-Star Game, and two, Bob Horner and Darryl Strawberry, have won the Rookie of the Year Award. Twenty of the forty-five picks have been drafted from high schools, one has been drafted out of the Independent American Association, and the others were drafted from universities. To date, Arizona State University has been the only school from which multiple number-one overall draft picks have been chosen. No first overall draft pick has been elected into the Hall of Fame, though it is likely that Ken Griffey Jr. will be the first when he is eligible in 2016. The New York Mets and San Diego Padres are tied for the most first overall picks with five, and the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays are tied for second most, with four.

Key

Draft

Footnotes

^a Goodwin chose to attend university instead of signing with the Chicago White Sox, and re-entered the draft once he graduated in 1975.^[6]
b Wilson has not officially retired, but last played in the Golden Baseball League before being released in June 2008.^[7]
c Hochevar played college baseball for the University of Tennessee, and was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005, but did not agree a contract. He re-entered the draft in 2006 after spending the previous year with the independent Fort Worth Cats.
^d Each year is linked to an article about the MLB draft for that season.

References

General

1. "Baseball Draft:First overall picks in the June Draft". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. October 30, 2008. http://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?overall_pick=1&draft_type=junreg. Retrieved 25 November 2008. 

Specific