Yankees History w/ 18th Pick Overall in MLB Draft

With the announcement that the Baltimore Orioles signed former Texas Rangers ace Yovani Gallardo to a three year deal the New York Yankees became almost essentially locked into the #18 pick in the first round of the MLB First Year Players Draft. This got me thinking, what have the Yankees done in their storied history with the 18^th pick overall in the MLB Draft so I got to researching and found that he team has only had the #18 pick in the first round once in the franchise’s history. In 1978 the New York Yankees selected a shortstop out of Bullard High School in Fresno, California with the 18^th pick overall and his name was Rex Hudler.

Hudler went on to have a pretty decent MLB career posting .261/.296/.422 triple slash with 56 home runs in his 13 season career. Hudler was never the All Star or the guy to lead the team offensively but he still managed to produce a solid 6.5 career WAR with a career .972 fielding percentage. 

The Yankees have come close to taking a player 18^th overall in years past, the organization took Bill Burdach 19^th overall in the original MLB Draft in 1965 out of Wahlert High School. The team also took Terry Whitfield 19^th overall out of Palo Verde High School in 1971 before picking 19^th overall again in 1975 when they took Jim McDonald out of High School as well.

In 2005 the Yankees climbed one spot higher to the #17 position where they took shortstop C.J. Henry with their first pick. You may remember Henry being used as the center piece of the cash dump that was the Bobby Abreu trade with the Philadelphia Phillies and you may also remember that shortly after the trade the Yankees got Henry back after not hacking it in Philadelphia. Total win for Brian Cashman.

I find it amazing that the Yankees have drafted first overall, twice taking Ron Bloomberg and Brien Taylor, more times than they have at the #18 slot. Unless something goes down between now and then the 2016 MLB Draft will mark just the second time the Yankees take someone with the #18 slot and if he turns out to be half as solid as Rex Hudler was I think New York is in pretty good shape going forward.