Top NYY Could-Have-Beens: Eric Milton

The Yankees thought they had their ace of the future when they selected Brien Taylor with the first overall pick in the 1991 MLB Draft .

However, one fateful day in 93 changed his and the teams fortunes forever.

Three years after the fight that effectively ended Taylors career, it appeared the Yankees finally found their flame-throwing left-handed starting pitcher of the future in Eric Milton.

Like Taylor though, he would never get the chance to pitch in the majors for the Yankees.

Years in Yankees Organization : 1996-98 How They Left : Traded to Twins in February 1998 Career MLB Yankee Statistics : Never appeared for Yankees (peaked at Double-A) Career MLB Statistics : 11 seasons, 271 games, 1,582.1 IP, 89-85, 4.99 ERA (94 ERA+), 4.78 FIP, 1.127 strikeouts, 16.5 rWAR, 17.1 fWAR Eric Milton was born August 4, 1975, in State College, PA.

He would grow up in the area, attending Bellefonte Area High School before going on to pitch for the University of Maryland, College Park.

The southpaw turned into a bit of a strikeout artist for Maryland, tallying the third-most Ks in Terps history with 236, including 118 in 96, the second-highest total for a Terp.

Their clubhouse is now named in Miltons honor.

Milton also played one summer for the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League and earned All-Star honors, holding opposing batters to a .105 average and setting the league record with his 0.21 ERA a performance which would earn him induction into the CCBL Hall of Fame in 2004.

With a projectable frame and an electric fastball, the Yankees selected Milton 20th overall in the first round of the 1996 MLB Draft a compensation pick they received from the Angels, who had signed Randy Velarde the previous offseason.

Milton made his professional baseball debut for High-A Tampa, going 8-3 in 14 starts with a 3.09 ERA and 95 strikeouts in 93.1 innings.

This earned a call-up to Double-A Norwich, where hed finish the season at 6-3 in 14 starts with a 3.13 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 77.2 innings.

This rapid ascent through the minor-league system led Baseball Prospectus to anoint Milton as one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, and Baseball America to rank him at 25 on their 1998 preseason top prospect list.

However, with a clear weakness at second base, the Yankees capitalized on Miltons rapid rise by packaging him alongside Cristian Guzman, Brian Buchanan, and Danny Mota in a trade for four-time Twins All-Star Chuck Knoblauch.

While it stings to give up a highly-prized starting pitching prospect (and Guzman, who would make two All-Star teams of his own), I reckon the three titles that Knoblauch helped win were more than worth the price of doing business.

His Gold Glove defense vanished in an awful case of the yips and his bat didnt approach his Minnesota prime, but he remained a pest at the top of the order and he came up with some big playoff moments .

Even with just one season in the minor leagues, the Twins immediately penciled Milton into the starting rotation at the beginning of the season, handing him his big-league debut on April 5, 1998 a start that saw him toss six scoreless against the Royals to pick up the victory.

Hed finish the year with a record of 8-14 in 32 starts, with a 5.64 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 172.1 innings.

Despite these poor results, Baseball Prospects remained high on the young southpaw, declaring that Milton would be to the next Minnesota championship what Frank Viola was to the 1987 flag.

Milton got off to a rocky start in 1999, struggling to retire batters early in the count causing his pitch counts to swell out of hand and ERA to balloon to 7.14 in his first nine starts.

He developed greater command of slider and changeup as the season wore on, leading to the most memorable moment of his 11-year career.

On September 11, 1999, the Twins were scheduled to host the Angels in a day game.

Because they shared the Metrodome with the University of Minnesota Gophers football team, Saturday start times were moved up from the normal 1:30 pm to 11:00 am to give stadium crew enough time to turn around the stadium in time for the mixed sport doubleheader later that night.

Because of the unusually early start time and a night game the day before, the Angels rested many of their starters including Jim Edmonds, Garret Anderson, Mo Vaughn, Tim Salmon, and Darin Erstad, and even skipped batting practice the morning of the game.

Milton had already tossed a three-hit, complete-game shutout against the Angels earlier that season, so thus the stars seemed to be perfectly aligned for Milton to throw the fifth no-hitter in Twins history.

Milton mowed down the Angels Triple-A lineup, striking out the first batter of the game before punching out a pair in each of the second and third.

His offense gave him all the run support he would need early, Matt Lawton opening the scoring on an RBI triple by Terry Steinbach in the first before they pushed a further three across in the second.

This allowed Milton to settle into a steady rhythm, and he would strike out a pair each in the sixth and seventh.

Keep in mind, Milton had already carried four separate no-hit bids into the sixth inning in his young career, so it caused quite an uproar in addition to the normal level of superstition when the answer to a seventh-inning stretch scoreboard puzzle was Jack Kralick, as an answer to the question, Who pitched the first no-hitter for the Twins? Fortunately for Milton, he would not be jinxed, finishing the no-hitter in just under two-and-a-half hours by striking out Jeff DaVanon for his 13th strikeout of the night a career high.

The only two baserunners for California came courtesy of an Orlando Palmeiro walk in the first and DaVanon walk in the third, after which Milton retired 18 straight batters.

It was the second no-hitter that backstop Steinbach had caught, the first coming from the As Dave Stewart in 1990.

After the game, Steinbach reflected on the differences between the two games.

I did a lot of following with (Stewart), said Steinbach.

(With) Milton, however, Im the veteran.

I was more nervous than he was in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings.

Hes going to pretty much throw what I call, so I felt a tremendous amount more pressure not to blow it.

That game would prove the highlight of Miltons career, and he would finish the season at 7-11 in 34 starts with a 4.49 ERA and 163 strikeouts in 206.1 innings.

He would pretty much repeat that performance in 2000, going 13-10 in 33 starts with a 4.86 ERA and 160 strikeouts in 200 innings.

2001 brought Miltons best campaign in MLB and his lone All-Star appearance, the lefty winding up at 15-7 in 34 starts with a 4.32 ERA and 157 strikeouts in 220.2 innings.

With three consecutive above-average (4.55 ERA, 108 ERA+) seasons under his belt, Baseball Prospectus proclaimed Milton was one of the 25 best starting pitchers in the game and not far from breaking into the top 10 or 15.

Unfortunately for Milton, 2002 marked the beginning of chronic knee issues that would ultimately end his career.

He went 13-9 in 29 starts with a 4.84 ERA and 121 strikeouts in 171 innings but missed time at the end of the season with left knee bursitis an injury that would cost him all but three appearances in 2003.

Before then, he at least got to partake in some hard-earned Twins playoff glory, as Minnesota won the AL Central to make their first postseason in over a decade.

Facing possible elimination in ALDS Game 4, Milton fired seven innings of two-run ball against the Moneyball As.

The Twins stayed alive and then captured what would be their final playoff series win for 21 years.

Despite allowing just one run in six innings to the eventual-champion Angels in ALCS Game 3, Milton took a no-decision.

The Twins lost the series in five games, and that was the closest that the lefty ever came to a World Series.

Following the end of the 2003 campaign, the Twins traded Milton to the Phillies for Nick Punto and Carlos Silva.

Even though he led the Phillies in wins (14) and strikeouts (171), he became the only lefty to give up at least 40 home runs in a season in franchise history.

That winter, he signed a three-year, $25 million free agent contract with the Reds, with whom he would give up 40 home runs for a second straight season the first time in Reds franchise history that a pitcher had done that.

In fact, between 1998 and 2006, no pitcher gave up more home runs than Miltons 261, 15 more than second-place finisher Javier Vazquez.

Miltons 6.47 ERA in his debut season in Cincinnati is the 15th-highest ERA in a qualified season by a starter in NL history.

Miltons poor performances and large contract led many in the media to turn against the southpaw.

He was the only pitcher included in Sports Illustrateds all-bust team while Baseball Prospectus labeled Milton as the most illogical free agent mistake in Reds history.

He managed to lower his ERA to 5.19 in 26 starts in 2006 but missed three weeks after undergoing surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee.

The most damning injury occurred in 2007, as he made just four starts before his campaign was cut short by Tommy John surgery.

Milton would sign a minor-league deal with the Yankees in 2008 but failed to make an MLB appearance that season.

He had one final hurrah with the Dodgers in 2009, signing a minor league deal and having his contract purchased to the majors after pitching to a 2.83 ERA in seven Triple-A starts.

He recorded his first win in almost three years in a 7-1 victory over the Rockies on May 26th, and would make five starts overall before his season and career was ended by surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back.

Since his retirement, Milton returned home to Maryland, and after a stint on the UMD coaching staff, he has become head coach of the Severna Park High School baseball team, with whom he recently coached 2024 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up Jackson Merrill.

Although his greatest achievement for the Yankees was helping them secure Chuck Knoblauch, Milton will always be a part of the baseball record books having thrown one of the 326 no-hitters in MLB history.

Sources Baseball Reference Baseball Almanac Baseball Prospectus FanGraphs Stew Thornley, SABR Previously on Top Could-Have-Been Yankees Ruben Rivera Full List (to date).

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