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

No. 3: Beau Mills – No. 13 overall, 2007

2007 was a great year in the city of Cleveland. The Cavs made their first-ever NBA Finals, the Browns won 10 games (still the most since their return), and the Cleveland Indians won the division and came within a win of the World Series. However, things couldn’t have gone much worse in the first round of the MLB draft that summer.

Picking No. 13 overall for the first time since 1991 when they drafted Manny Ramirez, the Indians selected Beau Mills, a first/third baseman out a NAIA school in Idaho (Lewis-Clark State College).

He is the son of current Indians bench coach and then Boston coach Brad Mills. He had great power and a bat that projected to hit for average, plus the baseball background scouts loved. However, things just never really materialized for him.

He had to move off third base almost immediately as he was a hack there. At first base, he wasn’t much better either and was looking like a DH-only guy before his 25th birthday. Things weren’t quite so bad at the plate, at least not initially.

In 2008, his first full season in pro ball, he hit a very good .293/.373/.506 with 21 home runs and 34 doubles. He looked well on his way to being a middle of the order bat in the mold of Jim Thome. However, that was the high point of Mills’s career.

Mills spent each of the next four seasons at Double-A and only played in 74 career games at the Triple-A level. He posted just a .757 OPS over his four seasons at Double-A and showed no improvement. He found his way to Cincinnati in 2012, which was his last in professional baseball.

Mills remains one of the highest collegiate draft picks in Tribe history to never make the major leagues and given that Jason Heyward was taken just one pick after him, things looked even worse very quickly.

What this pick may also be best known for was the last first-round pick ever with John Mirabelli in charge of the drafts. Following the 2007 season, Brad Grant was promoted to Director of Amateur Scouting, and the drafts ever since have been remarkably better for the Indians. So perhaps in a poetic way, the Mills pick was so bad but also so good for the Indians? (no…it was still just terrible).