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It's been eight years, and of the 978 players taken ahead of Pillar, exactly six have accumulated more WAR at the major league level: Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon, Francisco Lindor, George Springer (all 1st round picks), Mookie Betts (5th round), and Kyle

Kevin Pillar was drafted in the 32nd round of 2011 draft. He was the 979th player taken.

Obviously, he was never, never supposed to even sniff the major leagues. All 30 teams had said so, over and over. He had a chance to be organizational filler. He got $1,000 as a signing bonus.

It's been eight years, and of the 978 players taken ahead of Pillar, exactly six have accumulated more WAR at the major league level: Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon, Francisco Lindor, George Springer (all 1st round picks), Mookie Betts (5th round), and Kyle Hendricks (8th round).