Looking at the History of the 9th Pick in the modern MLB Draft

With the MLB Draft only about two months away I thought it would be good to examine the history of the players selected with the picks the Atlanta Braves have in the 2026 MLB Draft. With the Braves picking ninth overall for their first selection, I decided to start by looking at the history of the ninth pick in the draft in the modern era – or since 1987.

Every player and the team selecting them are being listed, as well as their bWAR. At the end I will run down the hit to bust rate, and what the median WAR produced is – excluding players drafted after 2020.

Note that with the WAR, a N/A indicates that the player never made it to the big leagues, while a player listed at 0.0 is for players that did appear in a big league game and just had a neutral WAR.

1987.Royals-Kevin Appier, RHP, 54.5 WAR

1988.Cubs-Ty Griffin, 2B, N/A

1989.Angels-Kyle Abbott, LHP, -1.4

1990.Dodgers-Ron Walden, LHP, N/A

1991.Orioles-Mark Smith, OF, -0.1

1992.Mets-Preston Wilson, SS, 6.4

1993.Tigers-Matt Brunson, SS, N/A

1994.Reds-CJ Nitkowski, LHP, -1.0

1995.Brewers-Geoff Jenkins, OF, 21.9

1996.Marlins-Mark Kotsay, OF, 21.4

1997.Twins-Michael Cuddyer, SS, 17.9

1998.Padres-Sean Burroughs, 3B, 5.5

1999.A’s-Barry Zito, LHP, 31.9

2000.Padres-Mark Phillips, LHP, N/A

2001.Royals-Colt Griffin, RHP, N/A

2002.Rockies-Jeff Francis, LHP, 9.6

2003.Rangers-John Danks, LHP, 20.2

2004.Rockies-Chris Nelson, SS, -2.6

2005.Mets-Mike Pelfrey, RHP, 5.7

2006.Orioles-Billy Rowell, 3B, N/A

2007.Diamondbacks-Jarrod Parker, RHP, 6.5

2008.Nationals-Aaron Crow, RHP, Did Not Sign

2009.Tigers-Jacob Turner, RHP, -2.6

2010.Padres-Karsten Whitson, RHP, Did Not Sign

2011.Cubs-Javier Baez, SS, 27.1

2012.Marlins-Andrew Heaney, LHP, 7.4

2013.Pirates-Austin Meadows, OF, 6.4

2014.Blue Jays-Jeff Hoffman, RHP, 3.8

2015.Cubs-Ian Happ, OF, 24.3

2016.Tigers-Matt Manning, RHP, 1.9

2017.Brewers-Keston Hiura, 2B, 0.9

2018.A’s-Kyler Murray, OF, Quit for football

2019.Braves-Shea Langeliers, C, 9.7

2020.Rockies-Zac Veen, OF, -0.3

2021.Angels-Sam Bachman, RHP, 0.7

2022.Royals-Gavin Cross, OF, N/A

2023.Rockies-Chase Dollander, RHP, 0.9

2024.Pirares-Konnor Griffin, SS, 0.8

2025.Reds-Steele Hall, SS, N/A

Total Players Drafted and Signed 1987-2019: 30 (excluding Kyler Murray who quit before playing a single minor league game)

Five Best Players: Kevin Appier (1X All Star, ERA Title), Barry Zito (Cy Young, 3X All Star), Javier Baez (3X All Star), Ian Happ (1X All Star, 4X Gold Glove), Geoff Jenkins (1X All Star)

Total 10+ WAR: 8 (Though Shea Langeliers could make it 9 any day)

Total Who Failed to Reach MLB: 6 (Excluding Karsten Whitson and Kyler Murray as they never played for the organizations who drafted them)

The ninth pick in the MLB Draft has not been a historically strong spot, despite being a high pick. If you look at the top players drafted within the nearly 40 years of the modern draft format, Ian Happ makes the list of the five best players taken – and nothing against Happ, but he is more of a solid starter than an impact guy.

However things could change in the next few years based on the results of the past few drafts. 2024 pick Konnor Griffin could become one of the best players in the game pretty quickly. Shea Langeliers just recently established himself as one of the top hitting catchers in the league, and Happ is still quite productive in his age-31 season.

History isn’t on the Braves side with the ninth pick to find an impact player, but as the recent Griffin pick has shown – any pick could help to change that narrative. Even if the Braves don’t land a true impact player, 16 of the 30 players picked pre-2020 had solid big league careers – so they have better than even money odds at finding a player like that. In the crapshoot that is the MLB Draft, knowing that’s a floor is still something.