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An old-time scout of mine has a saying, “The Draft is hard.”

It was a very difficult Draft in 2014. It’s the only Draft in which neither of the top two picks made it, and one of only three in which the first overall pick ended his career without making it to the Majors. Furthermore, Tyler Kolek and Brady Aiken were never better than Single-A pitchers.

While a few first-round selections—including three current Phillies teammates—performed well, the majority did not. Of the 34 real-life first-round picks, just 10 made the cut in our yearly redraft from ten years ago. Ten players selected in the sixth round or later also did so.

We have updated the whole 2014 first round based on the trajectory of careers thus far and our predictions for their future development. With three retro first-round picks apiece, the Blue Jays and Cubs led all teams. Chicago paid for the other two by using the money it saved on their real first-round pick.

Ramón Laureano of the Astros and Jordan Romano of the Blue Jays, both 16th-round picks and signed for $25,000, were the best deals. Laureano was the lowest selection. The only universities with more than one participant were Cal State Fullerton, NC State, and Oral Roberts; the Wolfpack produced two of the top ten big leaguers.

Players who signed in 2014 were the only ones taken into consideration for this redraft. The two top draft picks who chose not to play professionally were pair right-handers out of high school, Tanner Houck (Blue Jays, 12th round) and Drew Rasmussen (Diamondbacks, 39th round).

Turner was considered as the best collegiate position player going into the season, but when he tried to do too much at the plate, his performance declined, hurting his reputation. His deceptive power potential and speed were apparent, but it was unclear if he possessed the arm strength to play shortstop in the long run. Having selected him with the 13th overall choice, the Padres then included him in the disastrous three-team, 11-player transaction that sent Wil Myers to San Diego in December 2014. Turner went on to win two stolen base championships, a hitting title, and two spots in the All-Star Game with the Nationals before leading them to victory in the 2019 World Series.

The widely acknowledged best talent in the Aiken was the third first-round pick in the 2014 Draft to not sign, after Tim Belcher (Twins, 1983) and Danny Goodwin (White Sox, 1971). Aiken also failed miserably to make the Majors. At first, he and the Astros agreed on a $6.5 million bonus, matching the record held by Jameson Taillon (Pirates, 2010) for prep pitchers. However, the franchise was concerned about the size of his throwing elbow’s ulnar collateral ligament during a post-Draft medical. The next spring, Aiken went to pitch at the post-graduate program at IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.), but they were unable to come to an agreement on revised terms. In March 2015, 13 pitches into his debut game, his elbow gave out, necessitating Tommy John surgery. He was signed by Cleveland for $2,513,280 as the 17th overall selection that June, but after his elbow repair, his manners and command never fully recovered.