Cleveland Indians: 5 best first-round draft picks in club history

No. 4: Charles Nagy – No. 17 overall, 1988

A compensation pick for losing free agent Brett Butler, right-hander Charles Nagy was drafted by the Tribe in the 1988 draft as new GM Hank Peters was reshaping the franchise.

The second first-round pick from that year and only college draftee to make our top five, Nagy would become one of the staples of the big league rotation in the 1990s, helping lead the club to multiple World Series appearances.

All 297 of his big league starts came with the Indians and all but 12 1/3 of his career innings came with the club (he finished with the San Diego Padres for part of one year).

Nagy holds the distinction of having the highest career WAR for any right-handed pitcher drafted in the first round by the Indians at 25.1 (with the Tribe it was 25.2).

Overall that’s the fourth-best career mark and third-best among Tribe careers. He led the Tribe in wins six times in his career, strikeouts five times, complete games four times, and ERA four times. He ranks tenth in franchise history in wins at 129 and he was the last Tribe starter to throw ten complete games in a season, having done so back in 1992.

Injuries limited him in the second half of his career but there was no one better than Nagy early on and he was the home-grown pitcher on those later 90s teams that won all those division titles.

Some may argue this is too high and his career was never as good as fans thought, but I disagree.  He has become one of the more underrated Indians over the years. His loyalty to the franchise as a player was top-notch as well and the 90s would not have been the same without him.