San Francisco Giants Get Innings-Eating Veteran in Recent MLB Re-Draft

A recent look back at the 2010 MLB draft gave the San Francisco Giants a much different path than the player they selected.

September 27, 2020; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Drew Smyly (18) during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Oracle Park. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Back in 2010, the San Francisco Giants selected a near-consensus all-American out of Cal State-Fullerton named Gary Brown.

The No. 24 overall pick didn’t pan out. And a recent Baseball America re-draft provided the Giants with a much different alternative.

This was the draft in which the Washington Nationals selected outfielder Bryce Harper with the No. 1 overall pick. Naturally, the Nats ended up with Harper in the re-draft.

As for the Giants, Baseball America slotted the Giants with left-handed pitcher Drew Smyly who, in a twist, played for the Giants during his career.

Back in 2010, Smyly was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the second round out of Arkansas.

Smyly needed just a couple of years to work through the minor leagues and make his MLB debut with the Tigers in 2012. That put him on the same staff with Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. Detroit faced, oddly enough, the Giants in the World Series but lost.

He played more than two seasons with the Tigers before he was traded to Tampa Bay in 2014. The Rays traded him to Seattle in 2017 and he missed the season due to Tommy John surgery. He signed a two-year deal with the Chicago Cubs before the 2018 season, pitched in the minor leagues and was then traded to Texas.

In 2019 he pitched for the Rangers, along with the Milwaukee Brewers and the Philadelphia Phillies.

He hooked up with the Giants in 2020 during the COVID-19 shortened season, where he went 0-1 with a 3.42 ERA in seven games.

He joined Atlanta the following season, where he went 11-4 and helped the Braves win the World Series. He played for the Cubs again from 2022-24.

Had the Giants taken him in 2010, he potentially could have contributed to one or perhaps more of their World Series seasons.

After he was drafted, Brown was named to both the MLB 2011 All-Star Futures Game and Baseball America’s 2011 minor league all-star team. San Francisco added him to the 40-man roster in late 2013 and he made his debut the following year.

Brown played just seven games in the Majors, all with the Giants. He had three hits in seven at-bats with an RBI.

The Giants designated him for assignment in March of 2015 and he later hooked on with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Angels, before his final season of professional baseball with the Southern Maryland Blue Claws of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.

As a minor-league player he slashed 272/.334/.407/.742 with 51 home runs and 275 RBI.