The Mets are looking for this season’s Jose Iglesias! The Mets don’t have much depth up the middle with fielders who can play second base and shortstop.
In November, the Mets brought in Donovan Walton to fill that vacancy. The Mets drafted Walton in 2012, but he did not sign with the team. Instead, he enrolled at Oklahoma and was drafted in 2015 by the Brewers, but still did not sign. In 2016, the Mariners won the Walton sweepstakes, drafting him in the fifth round.
Donovan Walton. Photo Credit: Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images
Walton was never a highly touted prospect, generally landing around number 23 or 24 on the Mariners prospect lists on MLB Pipeline after being drafted (a good 10+ spots behind Daniel Vogelbach, who was also kicking around on the Mariners list then). His write-up then noted how his “instinct and consistency” made up for “his lack of tools“. In 2017, they expected his debut to happen in 2020 (he debuted in 2019) and that he would become a utility player.
Walton had a few cups of coffee with the Mariners and Giants between 2019 and 2024, totaling 70 games. He hit .174/.227/.305 with a 49 OPS+ in that span. He’s coming off a successful 2024 minor league campaign where he hit .306/.380/.441 (.821 OPS) over 99 games played.
It was tough to see a path for Walton to make the big league team entering spring. The Mets had Nick Madrigal as their super utility player. Behind him was Brett Baty (.438 BA, seven hits, two homers this spring) and Luisangel Acuña (.200 BA, two hits, two stolen bases this spring). However, Madrigal’s season-ending injury moves everyone up the depth chart, including Donovan Walton.
Walton is 2-for-11 over four spring training games with a double and one strikeout. If he can hit closer to what he did with the Giants Triple-A squad, then we’ll probably see him with the major league team at some point this season.
