St. Louis Cardinals history: The 10 worst first-round picks in the 21st century

The 2023 MLB draft will take place on July 9th in Seattle. The Cardinals will have the 21st pick in the first round of this year's draft and a late first-round pick is something the Cardinals are used to having.

With the Cardinals having 16 playoff appearances and 22 winning seasons so far in the 21st century, the negative that comes with that is that the Cardinals will not get a very high first-round pick in the draft, which makes good scouting and developing pivotal.

St. Louis has had some successful first-round picks in recent history, players like Lance Lynn in 2008, Shelby Miller in 2009, Kolten Wong in 2011, Luke Weaver and Jack Flaherty in 2014, and Nolan Gorman in 2018. It also looks like the Cardinals struck gold in 2020 taking Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, Tink Hence, and Alec Burleson in a draft that was cut to 5 rounds due to the pandemic.

There have also been some first-round draft picks that have had productive major league careers just not in St. Louis. Daric Barton had an 8-year career with Oakland after he was in the Mark Mulder trade. Adam Ottavino is in his 13th MLB season in 2023, he was the last pick in the 1st round in 2006 and only pitched 22.1 innings with the Cardinals before he was claimed off waivers by the Rockies in 2012. And Brett Wallace was a piece that went to Oakland in the Matt Holliday trade then had 6 seasons in the big leagues.

Not every first-round pick has worked out unfortunately for the Redbirds. For whatever reason some prospects just don't pan out. It is not just about a certain player not living up to expectations that being a first-round pick brings, but what can make the situation extra frustrating for teams is if they missed out on somebody who was drafted slightly after who blossomed into a star. That is how this list was created, how big of a " bust " the player was, and who did the Cardinals miss out on.

10. Pitcher Mark McCormick: 43rd pick in the 2005 Supplemental Draft 1st round

Mark McCormick was originally drafted by the Orioles in the 11th round in 2002 but instead went to the University of Baylor. He obviously made an impression with the Cardinals, as they selected him in 2005 as their compensation pick for losing Edgar Renteria in free agency in the 2004 Off-Season.

McCormick had a reputation for throwing a hard fastball, topping off at 98 MPH at Baylor which led to high strikeout totals across his minor league career, but other than that he was unable to find much success.

In his first full professional season in 2006, he was promoted to high A after recording a 3.78 ERA and a 10.8 K/9 across 11 starts in the Midwest League. Unfortunately, he was limited to just 4 starts the following season which slowed his development. Then in 2008 he was able to make it to Double-A but had a 6.08 ERA across 6 starts where he really struggled with control, walking 18 hitters across 23.2 innings. After 4 seasons in the Cardinal system and at the age of 24, McCormick was out of baseball.

The 2005 draft class was seen as very top-heavy, as most of the All-Star players were selected before the Cardinals had a pick. But just two picks after McCormick saw Jed Lowrie get selected by the Boston Red Sox, who had a very productive 14-year major league career.

9. Pitcher Seth Blair: 46th pick in the 2010 Supplemental Draft First round

Blair was similar to McCormick in that he did not sign with the first team to draft him to enroll in college, and it paid off for him in a big way. Instead of signing with the Athletics who took him in the 47th round back in 2007, he went to Arizona State, where he won the Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year in 2010, and was named a first-team All-American.

The Cardinals drafted Blair with their compensation pick that they received after they lost Mark DeRosa to free agency, and began pitching in the Midwest League in 2011 where he had a 5.29 ERA in 21 starts. Blair only made 7 starts in 2012 due to an awkward injury regarding a benign tumor in his finger before he found great success in the Arizona Fall League which led to the Cardinals promoting him to Double-A in 2013. Spending that entire season in Springfield was a struggle for Blair, only winning 3 of his 22 starts and posting a 5.07 ERA. It did not get much better for him in 2014, which ended up being his final season with the Cardinals organization.

The Cardinals tried to use him in the bullpen to find better results, but across 32 appearances (11 starts) in Double and Triple-A, he had a 6.01 ERA, more walks than strikeouts (58 BB and 52 K) and he gave up a mind whopping 151 baserunners in 79.1 innings pitched. For five seasons Blair was out of baseball, but he returned to the game in 2019 and he has pitched in three major league farm systems in the last four seasons, he has still yet to make the major leagues. He has spent the 2023 season pitching in the Mexican League.

Blair was the first of two supplemental picks the Cardinals had in 2010, the other player they selected was Tyrell Jenkins, who also never pitched in the big leagues for the Cards. Some players that were selected right after these two include Brandon Workman, Vince Velasquez, Jedd Gyorko, Drew Smyly, and Andrelton Simmons.

7. Catcher Steve Bean: 59th pick in the 2012 Draft

Bean was the fifth of five first-round picks the Cardinals had in 2012, and they decided to take a defensive-minded catcher straight out of high school.

The only problem with Bean's game would carry over to his time in the St. Louis organization, he was never able to hit. His offensive numbers would be equivalent to a backup catcher in the big leagues, he never hit higher than .235, never slugged higher than .315, and the most home runs he hit in a season was just 2.

In 5 seasons in the Cardinal farm system, High-A was the highest he got in the system, and after playing 3 games with the Padres Low A team in 2017, he quit baseball and became an agent. Rob Rains goes in depth with Bean's story and also the story of James Ramsey, another Cardinal 1st round pick in 2012 of how they're doing in their new careers post-baseball.

6. Shortstop Delvin Perez: 23rd pick in the 2016 MLB draft

Perez seemed to have stardom in his future when he was drafted by St.Louis in '16, but he never came close to those big expectations. What hurt Perez right off the bat was he was a controversial pick, as he was coming off a positive test for Performance Enhancing Drugs. The whole situation was difficult for all parties involved. But it definitely was the reason why he fell to 23rd in the draft, he was projected to go in the top 10 until he was caught juicing. What everybody thinks about players taking steroids and what the MLB has done to try to increase punishments for those that do, seeing a player drafted in the first round immediately after taking steroids, was seen as polarizing around baseball.

The hitting part of Perez's game took some time to develop, as he barely stayed above the Mendoza Line in his first professional season bouncing between the Appalachian and Coast leagues. He was an All-Star for Peoria in 2019 when he hit .262 and stole 22 bases, but after just hitting one home run, Perez looked to bulk up and add some weight to see if that led to improvements at the plate. In 2021 Perez saw slight improvements to his numbers, but it wasn't drastic. After the 2022 season, the Cardinals seemed to realize that with shortstop Masyn Winn making a rapid rise through the system, there would not be a spot for Perez with the big club any time soon, he was not re-signed.

The Cardinals knew that Perez was a high-risk, high-reward pick, and they never got the reward. But the '16 draft class looks bleak, to say the least, it looks like this season, Dodgers catcher Will Smith will be the first of the 1st round picks in 2016 to make an All-Star team. But the Cardinals thought they were getting a steal, they were wrong. His career is not quite over yet, Perez is now in the Yankees system and he is only 24 years old, there is still a chance he could make it to the big leagues someday.

5. Pitcher Justin Pope: 28th pick in the 2001 Draft

Pope was a standout pitcher at the University of Central Florida (UCF) breaking several school records in his time there, which led to his first-round selection in 2001. His professional career got off to a strong start, pitching to a 2.60 ERA in 15 starts in the New York/Penn League, then had a very strong year in 2002 with Peoria. In 12 starts that year, he went 8-1 with a minuscule 1.38 ERA and showed some great control, only allowing 12 walks across 78.1 innings. Unfortunately for Pope and the Cardinals, he could not follow that year up.

In the 2003 season, Pope was promoted to High-A Palm Beach and really struggled, a 4-11 record with a 4.92 ERA in 18 starts, a 10.4 hits/9, and just a 5.9 K/9. This was Pope's last season with the Cardinals organization, as he was traded to the Yankees at the 2003 Trade Deadline in the trade that sent Pitcher Sterling Hitchcock to St. Louis. Pope would spend 6 more seasons in the minor leagues, making it up to Triple-A but never getting to the show, he is now coaching in the minor leagues. Based on his massive achievements in College, it was a surprise to see Pope not pan out in his Major League career.

This draft did not have a whole lot of successful major league careers come out of it, especially in the late first round on down, but who was selected 9 picks after the Cardinals took Pope? It was David Wright, the 7-time All-Star, 2-time Gold Glove winning, 2-time Silver Slugger winning Third Basemen for the New York Mets.

4. Third Basemen Zack Cox: 25th pick in the 2010 MLB draft

Here we go again with 2010, Cox was the Cardinals' first of three first-round picks that year, a corner infielder from the University of Arkansas.

Cox did not sign when he was taken by the Dodgers in the 20th round in 2008 and went to Arkansas instead. After he did sign with the Cards he was moving fairly quickly up the farm system, by the end of the 2011 season Cox already made the jump to Double-A after slashing .306/.363/.434 across High-A and Double-A. He was receiving high praise for his early success ranking on Baseball America's top 100 prospects in 2 consecutive seasons, and was ranked as the Cardinals' top hitting prospect.

In 2012, in Cox's second full season with the Cardinals, was playing in Triple A-Memphis, where he hit .254 with 9 home runs and 30 RBI across 84 games. On July 31st, Cox was traded in what was a very shocking move at the time, he was sent to Miami for reliever Edward Mujica in a one-for-one trade. One of the Cardinals' top prospects shipped away for a middle reliever who had a 4.38 ERA in 41 appearances, at the time it was a puzzling move to make, but at the end of the day it paid huge dividends for St. Louis.

Mujica blossomed into a dominant reliever for the Cards in the stretch run of 2012, having an ERA a touch over 1 in 29 appearances, then became an All-Star closer for the Redbirds in 2013, recording 37 saves for that 97-win Cardinals team. Meanwhile, for Cox in the Marlins system, he dealt with some injuries, he hit just .183 in 60 at-bats with the Triple-A team, then was claimed by the Nationals in the Rule 5 Draft in 2015 only to be released shortly after. By 2017, Cox was out of baseball, he ended up not living up to the hype, and the Cardinals ended up greatly benefiting from trading him.

Cox is the second player drafted by the Cardinals in the first round of 2010 to make this list. There is a handful of players that were drafted after Cox that have had solid careers in the major leagues, players like Aaron Sanchez, Noah Syndergaard, Taijuan Walker, and Nicolas Castellanos.

3. Second Basemen Shaun Boyd: 13th overall pick in the 2000 MLB draft

Boyd is the second member of the 2000 draft class on this list. 13th overall is tied for the highest pick the Cardinals have had in this century (also picked 13th in 2008: Brett Wallace) but the Cards did not take advantage of such a high pick in 2000.

Boyd was a speedy second basemen out of high school in Vista, California, and was seen as a highly touted prospect with his combination of bat control and speed, which is why he was the third infielder taken in 2000.

His progression early on in the organization was steady as Boyd began the 2001 season in Peoria (A) and hit .282 with 20 stolen bases in 81 games, just struggled defensively with 20 errors on the year. And his best professional year came with Peoria in 2002, in 129 games he had a .314/.379/.471 slash line, with 12 home runs and 32 steals, but again it was ugly on the defensive side, doubling his errors from the year before with 40 errors. Boyd began the 2003 season in Palm Beach at the High-A level, where his numbers did decline, but the severe problem again was defensively. After committing 18 errors at second base in his first 42 games of the season, they moved Boyd to the outfield before being promoted to Double-A to end the season.

Moving to the outfield helped Boyd on the defensive side of the game, only committing one error in 2004 playing full time in the outfield, but he only hit .190 with zero home runs in Double-A which led to a demotion back to high A. The offense improved in 2005 when he played for Springfield, hitting .275 with a .705 OPS and tying a career-high with 60 RBI, and he committed 10 errors in the outfield. 2006 wound up being his final year in the Cardinals organization, he finally made it to Triple A-Memphis at the end of that season and only hit .188 in 49 games.

With the combination of inconsistent hitting and just brutal defensive play (career .940 fielding percentage across 9 professional seasons), it turned out to be a disastrous pick made by the Cardinals. What makes this worse is another second baseman was taken two picks after Boyd by the Phillies, and that was Chase Utley. What could've been? but the 2000 draft wasn't a total loss for the Cardinals, they selected Cardinals legend Yadier Molina in the 4th round that year.

2. Pitcher Chris Lambert: 19th pick in the 2004 MLB draft

Lambert was an impressive pitching prospect after an accomplished collegiate career at Boston College, and he was thought highly of in a draft class that was predominately built on pitchers.

After being drafted, Lambert was assigned to Peoria and he made 9 starts with them, recording a 2.58 ERA and a strong 10.8 K/9 rate. He was even better in High A with Palm Beach in 2005 going 7-1 in 10 starts which led to a quick promotion to Double-A, but he was not as effective. In 18 starts at Springfield, he had a 6.35 ERA and a 1.71 WHIP, struggling with putting hitters away as he did in college. After recording a 5.30 ERA at Double-A in 2006, he was promoted to Triple A-Memphis for one start at the end of the season.

Before the 2007 season, the Cardinals decided to move Lambert to the bullpen and it was not successful at all. in 28 appearances at Memphis (24 in relief ) he had a 7.49 ERA and again was struggling with hits and walks, recording a 1.79 WHIP. Towards the end of the season, Lambert was traded by the Cardinals to the Tigers, in a trade that sent pitcher Mike Maroth to St. Louis. He ultimately did make it to the major leagues with the Tigers and Orioles across two seasons, but he did not put up the numbers you would expect from such a high pick.

As I mentioned earlier, the 2004 draft class was loaded with pitching, who did the Cardinals pass on to take Lambert? They missed out on taking Glen Perkins, Phil Hughes, J.P. Howell, Gio Gonzalez, and Huston Street, five pitchers that were taken in the first round after Lambert.

1. Nick Plummer: 23rd pick in the 2015 MLB draft

Our final player, how excited was Cardinal Nation when St. Louis took Plummer back in 2015? He had the potential of being a guy that could hit for average and power, with an ability to steal bases and draw walks, which is why the Cardinals gave him a signing bonus of over 2 million dollars. So what went wrong?

It started okay considering in year one, slashing .228/.379.344 in 51 games for the Cardinals Gulf Coast League team at 18 years old, but he missed the entire 2016 season after undergoing hand surgery. When Plummer got back to full health, he struggled with consistency at the plate. In his two seasons at Peoria (2017-2018), he had a .202/.351/.316 slash line with just 12 home runs and 47 RBI, and he struck out in almost a third of his at-bats in 196 total games. It carried over in 2019 in Palm Beach hitting .177 with a 35.4% K rate in 96 games.

The minor league baseball season was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic which took away another full year from Plummer and his development, his second lost season at just 23 years old. Fortunately for him, 2021 was his breakout year. We finally saw the player that we thought the Cardinals drafted, a guy who could hit for average and power while still getting on base. He became the second Springfield player ever to have a 3-homer game ( Nolan Gorman was the first) which included a walk-off home run, and he broke Springfield's record for most consecutive games reaching base. This success led to Plummer getting called up to Memphis to end the 2021 season, but after the year the Cardinals decided not to put Plummer on the 40-man roster, so he elected for free agency.

After his Cardinals tenure ended, Plummer did make the Major Leagues for 14 games with the Mets in 2022, and he is now a free agent. It wasn't all Plummer's fault by any stretch, dealing with a season-ending injury and losing an entire year for COVID surely affected his development, but ultimately he just didn't hit enough in the Cardinals farm system which led to him never getting called up to St. Louis

When we have shown who the Cardinals have missed out on on some of these busts, but in this case it was literally the next pick. After the Cardinals took Plummer 23rd overall, the Dodgers selected Walker Buehler 24th overall. They also passed on Taylor Ward (26th pick), Mike Soroka (28th pick), Ke'Bryan Hayes (32nd pick), and Ryan Mountcastle (36th pick). Despite this disappointing first pick, 2015 has been a successful draft for St.Louis. They selected Jake Woodford with their competitive balance first-round pick, and they drafted Harrison Bader, Jordan Hicks, Paul DeJong, and Ryan Helsley in the first 4 rounds.