Worst First? Miami Marlins Biggest First Round Mistakes

2. Tyler Kolek

2014 was a bit of a double-whammy for the Miami Marlins draft class. Before choosing catcher turned reliever Blake Anderson (number eight on our countdown) was taken in the competitive balance round, Tyler Kolek was drafted with the second overall selection off the board out of Shepherd HS, in Shepherd, TX.

Kolek is a six-foot-five, 260 lb. right-handed pitcher, and for a while there was the Miami Marlins top rated prospect. In 2015, he was regarded as the number 52 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America.

Kolek was 0-3 with a 4.50 ERA in 22 innings for the GCL Marlins post-draft, with 18 whiffs. The great majority of his professional career came in 2015 with the Greensboro Grasshoppers.

With Greensboro that year, Kolek started 25 games and went 4-10 with a 4.56 ERA and 81 K’s in 108 2/3 innings. In the four calendar years since, he’s pitched 33 innings between GCL, the Short-season-A Batavia Muckdogs in the NYPL, and the Clinton LumberKings in the Single-A Midwest League. He’s given up 37 earned runs over that 33 innings for a 10.09 ERA, walking 50 batters, allowing 29 hits, and striking out 35.

Still, the Marlins have invested a lot of time trying to figure out what’s going to work for Kolek, and they haven’t given up on him yet. He remains with the organization and will likely start 2020 with the LumberKings whenever they get to work.