Alex Gordon has been a can’t-miss prospect. He’s been a maybe-miss prospect. Now he’s moved on from prospect status altogether, settling in as a 27-year-old question mark. He could turn into a player who is merely worth a lineup spot instead of an All-Star, but his fast start has Royals fans hopeful that this is the year Gordon breaks out.
Kansas City Still Holding Out Hope For Alex Gordon
It wasn’t always this uncertain. Gordon was one of the rare college hitters who couldn’t miss. Every so often, there’s a polished, almost-ready college hitter who separates himself from the rest of his peers. He might not be the first overall pick, or the second, or even the tenth, but everyone is certain that he’s just a year or two from a major league starting lineup. Anthony Rendon will have this buzz. Dustin Ackley was the last draftee to have it. J.D. Drew was one, as were Mark Teixeira and Ryan Braun. Coming out of the University of Nebraska, Gordon was supposed to be as good as any of them.
But is there still a chance Gordon can be a All-Star hitter? There is, just as there’s a chance that he could still slip back into complementary player limbo, baseball’s equivalent of the “friend zone.” Here are four former top prospects who had some parallels to Gordon, with two who made good, and two who never reached their perceived potential:
King was the first overall pick in 1986, taken by the Pirates over Gary Sheffield and Matt Williams. He was supposed to man third base for years, and he did ... just not that well. Despite poor-to-mediocre minor league performances, King was rushed up the ladder. He struggled with injuries before busting out for 37 home runs in his fourth season. Wait, that’s 37 career home runs total over his first four seasons with a .230/.280/.380 slash line, hardly what the Pirates expected from the top college hitter in the draft.
What makes King an imperfect comparison, though, is that Gordon destroyed the minor leagues. King struggled early and often. Even with that, though, King was able to put together a couple of nice seasons in his career.
The fourth overall pick in 1984, Snyder was also rushed through the minors, playing just a season-and-a-half before being called up. He and the Indians were the subject of a fawning Sports Illustrated article that proclaimed better times were coming for Cleveland. Right sentiment, wrong decade.
Snyder started off his career well, finishing fourth in Rookie of the Year voting in 1986, and looking as if he was on his way to super-stardom in 1987, when he hit 33 home runs as a 24-year-old. The accompanying .273 on-base percentage, though, was a red flag big enough to fly over The Kremlin. He was never able to walk enough or make enough contact to parlay his power into production.
Gordon already has a much better eye, walking more in his 24-year-old season than Snyder ever did, so again the comparison is apples to oranges, and everyone knows that oranges will swing at anything.
On the surface, Gibson was very similar to Gordon. He was a top prospect in college, and he zipped through the minors only to have his career stalled by injury after injury.
But no one is a good comparison to Gibson. He decided to play baseball in his junior year of college only after his coach at Michigan State suggested he try out to improve his bargaining power in the NFL Draft. He was a freak athlete who had the NFL drooling:
Patriots’ Bucko Kilroy says (Gibson) is the “first legitimate 4.2/40 white man we’ve timed.“While the scouting distinction is, uh, just a little outdated, the point stands. Gibson was a freakish athlete -- the kind who could grab a bat after not playing since high school and become an All-American who could hold his own in the majors after 500 at-bats in the minors.
And yet he’s best known for limping. Funny, that.
After a relatively modest start in the majors, Gibson turned into a beast in his age-27 season, regularly turning in seasons of 130 OPS+ or better. It’s almost a perfect comparison to Gordon, except that Gibson probably could have juked Lester Hayes out of his cleats if given the chance.
This is the best comp if you’re looking for a happy ending to Gordon’s story. Nevin was a Golden Spikes winner for Cal State Fullerton, the first overall pick in the 1992 draft, and a bit of a defensive mystery. The Astros started him off at third base and gave him some time in the outfield before moving him to the Tigers, who played him more in the outfield. Then he was shipped to the Angels, who experimented with him at catcher before the Padres got a hold of him, stuck him at third base, and enjoyed his best seasons.
Nevin was passed around like pinkeye because he was reportedly as welcome in the clubhouse as, well, pinkeye. But his eventual metamorphosis from once-prospect into middle-of-the-order hitter is exactly what the Royals are hoping for with Gordon.
No one’s development curve is exactly the same, and the Royals are hoping that Gordon’s slow start is due to bad luck and injury problems that are behind him. He’s off to a hot start, and with Kansas City having one of the better farm systems in recent memory, there’s still a chance for him to be a marquee player for a contending Royals team.
Oh, don’t be such a downer, auto-correct on my word processor. It can happen, and the Royals are right to still hope that Alex Gordon can be a big part of it.
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