Mets draft takeaways: New York stocks up on pitching talent, shortstops (2024)

When Mets owner Steve Cohen discussed the frustrations around his major-league club a few weeks ago, he also stressed the goal of building up a farm system and, more specifically, the importance of developing pitching. The way Cohen told it, the Mets have spent so heavily on pitching in free agency because they’ve had to; he referred to New York’s inability to develop pitchers compared to other organizations in recent years as shocking. After opening a pitching lab and hiring highly-regarded minor-league coaches over the last several months, the Mets hope they took another positive step this week in fixing the glaring issue.

Of the Mets’ 23 selections in this year’s MLB Draft, which concluded Tuesday, 16 were pitchers. Heavy with college arms, the total represented the most pitchers the Mets have drafted since the draft went to its 20-round format in 2021 (they drafted 12 and 13 pitchers, respectively, the last two years).

In addition to all the pitchers, the first three purely position players — New York drafted two-way player Nolan McLean out of Oklahoma State with the 91st pick — that the Mets selected were all prep shortstops: Colin Houck (32nd, Parkview High School in Georgia), A.J. Ewing (134th, Springboro High School in Ohio) and Boston Baro (246th, Capistrano Valley High School in California).

The 2023 MLB Draft is in the books for the Mets. Breakdown of picks:

23 total picks
7 position players
15 pitchers
1 two way player

6 high schoolers
17 college players pic.twitter.com/1n52vJ8dLz

— Joe DeMayo (@PSLToFlushing) July 11, 2023

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“Our goal here is to build a sustainable winner and we feel like these players help us get closer to that goal,” said Steve Martone, Mets special assistant to the general manager, draft operations. “We targeted players that play up the middle, premium positions that are able to impact the game in the batter’s box, on the pitcher’s mound, on basepaths, in the field.”

Here are a few takeaways from the Mets’ draft.

After the Mets chose Houck with their first pick, they selected four straight college pitchers. Including the right-handed McLean, the two-way player, the Mets chose right-handers Brandon Sproat (Florida), Kade Morris (Nevada) and Wyatt Hudepohl (UNC Charlotte). Of the group, Sproat, their second-round pick, stands out because of his ability to flash 100 mph and because the Mets also drafted him in the third round of last year’s draft. Martone said New York liked how Sproat showed improvement from last year, particularly with his secondary pitches.

“His breaking ball got crisper and he really developed a feel for his changeup,” Martone said.

As a pitcher, McLean sits around 95 mph and uses a power slider/cutter that gets up to 92 mph. McLean showed a lot of raw power with Oklahoma State; that tool plus his interest in wanting to hit and pitch convinced the Mets to allow him to pursue being a two-way player. In addition to focusing on pitching, McLean will be a designated hitter.

Houck (10), Sproat (39), McLean (89), Morris (91) and Ewing (100) all cracked The Athletic’s Keith Law’s top 100 prospects for the draft. Morris qualifies as an example of why people shouldn’t put a ton of stock into college statistics for pitchers. His 5.42 ERA in 81 1/3 innings belies his tools, which matter more for development, and also somewhat reflect pitching at elevation.

In Morris, the Mets like his athleticism, strong frame (6-foot-3, 190 pounds) and deep mix of pitches, which includes a fastball that sits around 94 mph and a good slider. He uses some deception, with a short-arm delivery. In his top-100 roundup, Law wrote, “The delivery isn’t ideal but he makes it work for him with a low 3/4 slot that shows the ball late, with plenty of arm speed to let him hold his stuff in a pro rotation. I think he’ll be better in pro ball than in college, with a fourth starter ceiling.”

“He’s got very good control and an above-average ground-ball rate,” Martone said. “He’s someone we believe, get him closer to sea level, things are really going to be pointing up for him.”

With several of the other pitchers that the Mets picked in later rounds, they looked for interesting traits that the hurlers have shown throughout their careers which give the player development staff something to work with.

The consensus from area scouts and draft analysts around the league on Houck seemed to be that the Mets were fortunate that he fell to them. However, concerns over his defense and whether he will stick at shortstop linger. From the Mets’ perspective, shortstop would remain Houck’s immediate future in the pros.

“We scouted him heavily,” Martone said. “We think that there’s plus-athleticism there, body awareness. We’re not going to put a limit on him. We’re going to run him out there as a shortstop and let him develop as a shortstop.”

Like Houck (Mississippi State), Ewing (Alabama) is also a prep shortstop with a college commitment to an SEC school. Martone wouldn’t comment specifically on levels of confidence regarding individual players’ signability. However, league sources suggested that the Mets should be able to sign Ewing (and Houck commented on the topic Monday, saying his dream was to play professionally out of high school).

With Ewing (6-foot, 185 pounds) on his list, Law wrote, “Ewing is a medium-sized kid with a big swing, pulling his hands way back but still getting the bat head to the zone on time because he’s strong and has good hand speed. It’s pretty hard contact for someone his size, although there’s a risk that swinging this hard will lead to more swing-and-miss when he faces better pitching.”

The Mets liked Ewing for his “hard contact, swing, ease of operation at the plate, good barrel control and bat speed,” Martone said.

“Strength and timing, it’s there for someone from a sweep, left-handed swing,” Martone said.

Looking for a non-pitcher who also doesn’t play shortstop to follow from the draft?

Nick Lorusso, a third baseman from the University of Maryland whom the Mets selected in the ninth round, is the pick.

Lorusso — he used to pitch, too, first with Villanova and then Maryland but stopped before this past season — set Maryland’s single-season records for home runs (26), RBIs (105) and extra-base hits (48).

Generally, when it comes to evaluating college hitters, teams use scouting reports, on-field performances, college statistics and ball-tracking technology. As Martone said, the Mets are looking for as many of those arrows pointing toward major-league success as they possibly can. Lorusso checks several of those boxes.

“He has a lot of those,” Martone said. “He has a track record of hitting the ball hard, a track record of power and somebody our hitting department is really excited about getting in our system.”

(Photo of Nolan McLean: Garett Fisbeck / Associated Press)

Will Sammon is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering the New York Mets. A native of Queens, New York, Will previously covered the Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Gators football for The Athletic, starting in 2018. Before that, he covered Mississippi State for The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi’s largest newspaper. Follow Will on Twitter @WillSammon