Junior Spivey
The Diamondbacks drafted Junior Spievey in their very first MLB draft in 1996. The D-Backs wouldn’t play their inaugural season until 1998. On top of that, Spivey was a 36th-round pick, a round that doesn’t exist anymore (2023’s draft was 20 rounds). Spivey played his first MLB games in 2001, where he hit .258/.354/.423 with a 101 wRC+. As a platoon second baseman, these were decent numbers. But 2002 would be the peak of Spivey’s career.
Over 626 plate appearances, Spivey batted .301/.389/.476. He struck out in 16% of his plate appearances with a quality 10.4% walk rate. The middle infielder had 34 doubles and 16 home runs, leading to an isolated slugging percentage of .175. Spivey’s defense was league average with zero DRS and only +0.2 UZR/150, but he still finished the year with +4.3 fWAR.
Not only did Spivey make the 2002 All-Star game, but he also received some MVP votes. He finished 14th in voting, ahead of the likes of Andruw Jones, Gary Sheffield, Jim Edmonds, Todd Helton, and Larry Walker. Now, it’s totally debatable if Spievey was truly more deserving than any of those players. But the point of the matter is we are talking about someone who got MVP votes at one point in their career, deserving or not.
Spivey would fall well below these marks in the following three seasons. He would bat just .252/.332/.413 with a .327 wOBA and 93 wRC+ over his next 964 plate appearances with the D-Backs, Milwaukee Brewers, and Nationals. While he provided good defense at the keystone, his wRC+ in 2003-2005 would fall 31% short of his 2002 campaign. Spivey would appear in games with the Cardinals and Red Sox’s Triple-A affiliates and play some independent ball before retiring in 2009.