by Pat LackeyFiled under: Diamondbacks, Mets, Orioles, Pirates, Rangers
Kris Benson, the first overall pick in the 1996 draft, is retiring from baseball, according to FOX's Jon Paul Morosi. Most people will probably have the same reaction to this news -- Kris Benson was still pitching? -- and that's sort of the story of Benson's entire career in a nutshell. When the Pirates took Benson with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1996 draft, he was coming off of a phenomenal junior year at Clemson in which he'd struck out 202 hitters in just 156 innings to go with his 14-2 record and a 2.02 ERA. Not quite Stephen Strasburg, perhaps, but he was the clear top prospect in the draft that year and the Pirates made him one of the centerpieces of their plan to put a winning club in PNC Park when it opened in 2001.
Benson was already on the disabled list when PNC opened, though, and he missed all of that 2001 year with Tommy John surgery. His career never really rebounded after that. Between 2002 and 2006 with the Pirates, Mets and Orioles he compiled a 47-47 record with a 4.54 ERA, a 1.39 WHIP, and just 5.3 strikeouts per nine innings. Solid numbers, but not what was expected out of the top pick in the draft. Since 2006, Benson's battled shoulder problems and thrown just 36 1/3 major league innings. Just 14 of those came in 2010 with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
It's been a long time since Benson was considered even an average big league pitcher and even longer since he was taken first overall in the draft (when the Pirates drafted him in, they'd had just three consecutive losing seasons), but his quiet retirement should be a reminder to fans of all teams exactly why prospects are just that and nothing more, no matter how promising they look.
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