Toronto Blue Jays: The 10 worst first-round picks since 2000

2000 – OF Miguel Negron (18th)

Notable players passed over: Adam Wainwright (29th), Cliff Lee (105th), Yadier Molina (113th)

So you may be saying, “Miguel who?” Yes, exactly. Probably someone you never or anybody else has ever heard of or remember at all. Miguel Negron was an outfielder prospect selected by the Jays out of Manuela Toro High School in Puerto Rico. He would go on to spend his entire career in the minor and foreign leagues over 12 active years. He didn’t possess much power, nor did he hit for a high average, and never made it above Double-A during his tenure with the Jays’ organization. If you even try to just search his name, there isn’t any historical news about him to be found other than his playing stats. Hence, quite the sad pick for the Jays at the turn of the century when they were beginning to build their team around cornerstones Carlos Delgado, Doc Halladay and Chris Carpenter.

Unfortunately, with the Negron pick, the Jays missed out on star-caliber players such as Adam Wainwright, Cliff Lee and Yadier Molina. Wainwright or Lee would have been a tremendous addition to the Jays’ starting rotation, which was quite feeble behind Halladay and Carpenter. Molina would have automatically become the Jays’ mainstay backstop for the next decade, without worrying to have to go through the likes of Ken Huckaby, Tom Wilson, Greg Myers, Gregg Zaun, Rod Barajas and others as temporary stop-gap solutions. In addition, he would have been the ideal catcher to guide the young Jays’ pitching staff at the time with his game calling and most likely would have helped bring more productive years during Halladay’s tenure with the Jays.