2020 MLB Draft: Colorado Rockies and their history with the ninth pick

The Colorado Rockies have the ninth pick in the 2020 Major League Baseball draft. Let’s look at the team’s history with players taken ninth overall.

There has only been two other times in Colorado Rockies history where the team has chosen ninth in the MLB draft. The first came in 2002 when the Rockies selected Jeff Francis, a left-handed pitcher out of the University of British Columbia. The second came in 2004 when Colorado picked high school infielder Chris Nelson.

Nelson would have an unspectacular career for the Rockies, seeing action in 212 games over four seasons. Francis, however, would fare much better.

Francis would go on to be named one of the top 25 players in Colorado Rockies history during the team’s 25th anniversary season. Francis would start 185 of the 197 games in which he appeared for the Rockies, going 64-62 with a 4.96 ERA. He would also allow three runs in a combined 12.2 innings to earn wins in the 2007 NLDS against Philadelphia and the 2007 NLCS against Arizona, helping the Rockies achieve their only World Series appearance to date.

In all, Francis would play 11 MLB seasons, suiting up for the Rockies and five other teams. He would also finish sixth in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting in 2005.

So Francis is the most successful player Colorado has ever drafted with the ninth pick. But there have been four other players drafted ninth who have made substantial impacts for the Rockies as well through the years. We will begin with a player drafted ninth by the Kansas City Royals in 1975.

Clint Hurdle may have never played for the Rockies but the ninth overall pick in the 1975 draft certainly made an impact on the franchise, leading Colorado to the World Series in 2007 and the playoffs in 2009. He finished his time in Colorado as the franchise’s winningest manager, going 534-625.

As a player, Hurdle suited up for 10 seasons for four different teams between 1977 and 1987. Breaking into the Majors as a 19-year-old with the Kansas City Royals, Hurdle slashed .308/.357/.538 in his first 26 at-bats. However, he played in more than 80 games just twice in his career and stepped away from playing at the age of 29 after just three at-bats with the New York Mets.

Between his time overseeing the Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates, Hurdle impacted the game much more as a manager than as a player.

Preston Wilson was selected ninth overall by the New York Mets in the 1992 MLB draft. However, he played in just eight games for the Mets before finding success elsewhere.

Traded by the Mets along with two other players for Mike Piazza in 1998, Wilson would also be a part of another blockbuster deal in 2002 when he came over from Florida to the Rockies as part of the Mike Hampton and Juan Pierre trade.

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In his first season in the Mountain Time Zone, Wilson would earn his only All-Star appearance with the Rockies in 2003 and he would finish 16th in the National League MVP voting that season as well, leading the league with 141 RBI and pounding what would be a career-high 36 homers.

Wilson’s time with Colorado wouldn’t last long. After a 2004 season that was shortened by knee surgery, he was traded in July of 2005 to Washington. He would step away from the game after playing in just 25 games with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2007.

Drafted by the Minnesota Twins with the ninth pick in the 1997 draft, Michael Cuddyer played 11 seasons with the Twins before coming to the Rockies as a free agent in the offseason before the 2011 campaign.

Cuddyer made his biggest impact with the Rockies in the 2013 season, earning an All-Star bid on the way to putting together a 27-game hitting streak and leading the National League with a .331 average. He finished the campaign with a Silver Slugger (the only one of his career) and in the top 20 in the MVP voting (the highest finish of his career).

On August 17, 2014, Cuddyer hit for the cycle at Coors Field against the Cincinnati Reds, making him the 30th Major League player to hit for the cycle more than once. He also became just the third player in history, along with John Olerud and Bob Watson, to hit for the cycle in both the American and National Leagues. The feat would also give Cuddyer the distinction of being the only player to hit for the cycle during the 2014 season.

That November, he would sign a two-year deal with the New York Mets, ending a brief but history-making stint in Colorado.